A Tremor in Time Itself
by ElfDrake
Summary: Rose finds her way to the end of her original universe. A month or so later, the Doctor shows up. But what is her watch, the one with those weird symbols on it? And who exactly is MC, the woman in an immortality suit, and what is her dark past? And how does Donna Noble play into this? And what of the people from their personal future paying visits? First in the Chronology Sequence.
1. Victors of the War part 1

**The first chapter in the newest version. I hope everyone enjoys it. To be honest, I'm probably happier with this version than any of the others.**

This is it, Rose thought, her heart nearly beating out of her chest. there had been seven long, tedious, depressing years since Bad Wolf Bay. When the Doctor had said impossible, she had believed she could get back to him. After all, they ate impossible for breakfast.

But then came seven years. Seven years of trying to get the bloody dimension canon to work. The first attempt was a complete failure. It exploded. The second wasn't much better; it imploded. The third had caught fire. The fourth worked. Ish. If one counted being sent forward ten years in the future as an improvement. Then, of course, it caught fire. That had left Rose ten years in the future and empty inside.

Her little brother, Tony, would be a teenager. Her family and Mickey would be ten whole years older than when she last saw them.

She didn't think she could take that. How could she bare the fact she had missed ten precious years? Her mum would forbid any further work on the dimension canon, her one last hope to see the Doctor again.

No, that couldn't happen. So, she had gotten a pixie but, died her hair black, gotten golden contact lenses and changed her style. From there she had gotten a job at Torchwood and recommenced the dimension canon. No one else would work on it.

She had almost given up hope. But she hadn't. And here she was, four years later, about to make it back to her home universe. She would see the Doctor again!

She grinned the first real smile she had had since first being landed in that universe.

She slammed the yellow button, sucking in a deep breath. She closed her eyes. this was the day.

She felt like all the wind had been knocked out of her, like her stomach had been cut down the middle and turned inside out, like someone had pounded her head into dust. But then the agony stopped. Panting, Rose opened her eyes one at a time.

The world was dark. She registered that there were no stars in the sky. Just the planet. She blinked once, then again. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and the chill.

She shivered, more from the thrill of a new adventure than anything else.

On the horizon, she could see a silo-esque building. Not bothering herself with thinking, she ran to the building, her pale lab coat flapping behind her as she went. Behind her, she could hear voices echoing the word, 'human,' over and over again as if it were the answer to everything.

She picked up speed, not really caring to know what the owners of the voices wanted with humans. A stitch of pain shot up her side. With a grimace, she realized how out of shape she had become during her years as a Torchwood scientist.

Nevertheless, she managed to reach the building in one piece. "Show me your teeth!" the guard at the gate commanded.

Not really caring to find out what happened if she didn't, Rose obeyed, peeling her lips.

Seconds passed, the blood roaring in her ears as she waited to be let into the building. Finally, the guard opened the gate. "Welcome to the Silo."

Rose exhaled, wiping her forehead. For a few awful, agonizing seconds, she had thought that the guard would not let her pass.

The next few minutes were a blur, her relief overpowering her ability to process her surroundings. Or maybe that was just her coming down off of her adrenaline. Yep, that was definitely it. She took a few shaky breaths, finally glancing at the Silo's other occupants. Refugees, she realized. But there was something else. There was too much hope in their eyes for them to be refugees. No, they had to be passengers of some kind.

Whatever she had said in her adrenaline rush was a blessing; a few minutes later, an insectoid woman approached her. "Chan- hello -tho," the woman greeted.

"Hi," Rose replied, drumming her fingers. She needed to figure out what was going on; the not knowing was setting her on edge. "I'm Kuri, Kuri Hunt." Her lips curled into a small smile. According to google translate, at least, Kuri Hunt was Estonian for Bad Wolf. Just maybe, the words would lead the Doctor to her, just this one last time.

"Chan- I'm Chantho -tho. Chan- If you would please follow me -tho," the insectoid woman, Chantho, replied. Rose smiled. She could give the woman that. If the way the woman was acting was to be taken as any sort of indicator, she would soon be Rose's colleague. Perhaps, they could even become friends.

Rose's hypothesis proved accurate, and Rose was soon made Professor Yana's second lab assistant.

Throughout the month that followed, Rose and Yana found that they were almost complete opposites. On one hand, Rose attempted to be optimistic — after all, she made it to the right universe — but Yana was a pessimist right to the core; he believed that they were defeated before they even began. Rose clucked her tongue at this, making her even more infuriating in the Professor's opinion.

Another thing about the pair that clashed was that they both had grown used to being in charge and did not like to be ruled over by another scientist. Rose had become the leading scientist at Torchwood in addition to working on the dimension canon, and the younger upstart scientists obeyed her every command. Rose almost laughed at this because she used to be the one to watch the Doctor's science experiments. Yana had been the one in charge of the Silo for years on end with a young Malmooth girl to obey his every wile. He did not like having his every order questioned.

The last thing that they couldn't stand about each other was their methods. Yana had long ago become accustomed to enforced improvisation due to the lack of materials to work with. Rose, on the other hand, had been used to Torchwood's endless supplies of alien tech and had troubles adjusting to the new scarcity.

In contrast to this, Rose and Chantho had fallen into an easy friendship. Chantho would talk of her time with the Professor with stars in her eyes. Rose would tell stories about the 'old days' claiming them to be no more than fables. But Chantho thought them brilliant nonetheless. But sometimes Rose thought she could see Chantho's stomach churning in unease. She didn't like the idea of intrigue, fake identities, and scandal. While Rose couldn't blame her for her liking of straightforwardness, she knew that it would be tough if Chantho ever learned that she wasn't actually Kuri Hunt.

Then, a month after Rose arrived, the improbable happened. A man in pinstripes with sticky-uppy hair showed up. Rose's pulse quickened, her breath catching in her throat. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, but she swallowed them down. It might not be the Doctor, she reminded herself glumly. She didn't want her decreasing hope to vanish altogether from a red herring.

But then the impossible happened. Chantho led the Doctor into the lab in the Silo. The Doctor didn't seem to notice her straight off. Jack saw her face and grinned, but he wasn't quite sure if he hadn't seen incorrectly.

"What's your name?" Martha asked Chantho. Her brow knitted itself into a frown when she caught the look on Jack's face.

"Chan- Chantho -tho," Chantho replied, smiling warmly. Rose knew that she liked it when people took her feelings into consideration or even just showed that they cared how she felt. Despite her fancying the Professor, Chantho still felt abandoned by him. "Chan- and this is Kuri Hunt and Professor Yana -tho."

The Doctor froze in his tracks. "What?" he exclaimed, not entirely believing his ears to be telling him the truth.

"Chan- this is Kuri Hunt and Professor Yana -tho," Chantho repeated, her voice quieter this time. The hurt was evident in her voice. Rose knew that she felt ignored.

The Doctor glanced wildly around the room as if a cat combing the area for that one little mouse. Then he saw her. Rose. Kuri Hunt. Bad Wolf. Both his hearts skipped a beat. Or two. Or three.

"Rose! Rose!" he cried, his voice hoarse with rampant emotion. He thought that he had never seen a more beautiful sight than Rose standing before him.

Without even the slightest bit of conscious thought, Rose was in the Doctor's arms, and both were grinning like the mad idiots they were.

Jack, watching them, smirked. The two were definitely in love. The way they were together just looked so right, like the two had been made for each other. Jack suspected that this Doctor had been made for Rose.

Martha's jaw dropped; she was dumbfounded. Not only was the Doctor hugging someone, he was happier than she had ever seen him. Jealousy made her stomach turn. She wanted to be the one that made the Doctor that happy. She wished Rose had never come back. Then a wave of guilt assaulted her; the Doctor wouldn't want that. She should want him to be happy.

Chantho blinked. Kuri — Rose — had been lying to her this entire time. Her heart wrenched. Rose had known exactly how much she despised being lied to. And what had Rose done? Lied to her. About everything. A wave of bitterness pierced her heart. She had trusted Kuri Hunt, and Kuri had betrayed her. She had thought that Kuri was her friend. But apparently, she was a misguided fool. She stalked over to the Professor.

"Chan- are you alright -tho?" she asked, genuine concern sweeping across her face. The Professor looked as if her had one of his dreadful migraines again.

Chantho cast a wary eye back to Rose and the Doctor. She was rather taken aback. The two were snogging!

If Rose could describe how she felt in one word, it'd be bliss. Utter bliss. She had spent seven long years searching for this man, and now, she was snogging him! All her hard work had met its end, and Rose realized contentedly that every ounce of despair had been utterly worth it.

Finally, they pulled apart, panting. "I missed you," Rose murmured as soon as her brain could think up a coherent thought.

"I missed you too," the Doctor whispered into Rose's hair, breathing in her scent. He sighed. A tear threatening to tear itself from his eye. He was a Time Lord; he didn't cry unless something was awful. He most certainly did not cry from joy! But, it seemed that that theory was about to be defenestrated. And the Doctor was not traumatized by that thought in the least.

Finally, the Doctor and Rose released each other. There was a fair amount of reluctance in such. Rose hugged Jack, whom seemed equally surprised to see Rose. She jumped to the conclusion that the Doctor had explained about the parallel universe thing. But she was infinitely more surprised to see Jack; she had assumed he was dead. When the Doctor had said Jack was rebuilding the Earth, she had figured he was trying to spare her feelings and that Jack was indeed dead. Apparently, she had been wrong. And she was very glad that she was.

The Doctor glared at Jack's back, clearly jealous. Martha shook her head. The Doctor had nothing to be jealous of. Rose was clearly as much in love with him as he was with her.

Jack released Rose and walked over to where Yana and Chantho were. "What is this?"

"This is for the rocket. We just need to get it working and harmonize the footprint. Chantho can explain it," Yana replied, taking a sip of his coffee. "To Utopia, where one could hope the coffee is a little less sour!" Yana chuckled dryly, sitting down on a stool, leaning backwards. Jack burst out laughing, and Chantho shook her head at the Professor's antics.

The Doctor, intrigued by the machinery, walked over to the congregation. Martha walked over to Rose, wanting to know what the girl was about. "Hi," she began, "I'm Martha Jones."

"Rose Tyler," Rose replied. "But I've been called Kuri Hunt for four years."

Martha's eyebrows skyrocketed. If it had been four years for Rose, Martha thought, then she must have travelled with the Doctor when she was eighteen! But Martha replied, "You've been here four years?!"

"Nope," Rose drawled, rolling her eyes. "I've been here a month. I started calling myself Kuri Hunt three years into being at the parallel universe."

"Seven years? Were you sixteen when you travelled with the Doctor?" Martha sputtered.

"No, nineteen and twenty. I just got good genes is all," Rose sighed. She knew she hadn't been aging quite properly, and she had just assumed that it was an aftereffect of TARDIS-travel. If that were the case, she didn't want to freak Martha out.

"Right," Martha huffed, slightly anxious. "What was it like living on a parallel earth?"

Rose shifted uncomfortably. She had been trying to keep the parallel Earth in the back of her mind and savor being in her proper universe. But, it seemed she'd have to call up the memories. "Well, it wasn't too terribly awful at first. Zeppelins in the sky, Torchwood helping me to get back. As I said, not awful. But then it all went awry when I managed to get stuck ten years in the future, my timeline. Haven't seen my family since. I became the top scientist a Torchwood, you know." Rose swallowed back the lump protruding from her throat. She felt tears wanting to leak from her eyes. She blinked, and then again.

Behind them, the Doctor had sonicked the systems, and all that was left to do in the Utopia Project was to harmonize the things that would allow the footprint to work. "The only problem is," Yana began, his voice saddening, his eyes dimming, "is the stet radiation.

"Stet?!" the Doctor exclaimed. "I've never heard of stet radiation before! What is this stet radiation?" He pushed his glasses back up his nose, as he tried to see any information on the stet radiation. When he couldn't find any, he pouted slightly.

Yana shook his head. "You should hope you never have to."

Chantho stared sadly at the Professor. She knew that he had never really put stock into the Utopia Project, but she didn't think that was excuse enough to be so sad. She grimaced; it wasn't her place to reprimand the Professor though, but she could give him advice. "Chan- you shouldn't speak as though you have given up -tho. Chan- stet radiation above a certain level vaporizes all biotic tissue -tho."

Yana shook his head at the young hopefuls. There was so little left to do, but what hope was there? The darkness was closing in too quickly. What could they do to stop it? All their efforts were in vain. They would die in the dark. But still, one could cling to whatever hope he had, no matter how faint that hope may be.

Yana sighed heavily. The drums in his head grew louder. And louder. And louder. And louder. With every passing day, with every waking second. He rubbed his forehead, willing the unbearable agony to dissipate.

The Doctor's voice was what broke Yana from his thoughts. " — Which no man can enter without dying. I think I've got just the man." The Doctor pointed to Jack with his thumb, his gesture somewhat rude. Hope cascaded onto the Professor's face, and the Professor latched onto that hope like a vise.

"You can get the Utopia Project to work?" Yana asked, his voice betraying how desperate he really was.

"Oh, yes!" the Doctor exclaimed. Rose grinned. Martha came over to stand next to Rose.

Chantho smiled, "Chan- In that case, I will take you to the room -tho." She turned to walk down the corridor, leading both the Doctor and Jack. Rose walked over to the screen, fully intending to watch Jack and the Doctor.

However, the power blipped. Rose cursed under her breath. She just wanted to watch her friends, but no; apparently, that weensy little mercy was way too much to ask. Even after all this time, even after letting her get her two favorite men back, the universe still wouldn't let her catch a break.

A minute later, Chantho returned by herself, no Doctor or Jack to be seen. A wrinkle creased Rose's forehead. With the two men gone, with the exception of Martha, it was as if she still hadn't found the Doctor.

Martha tapped her fingers, wondering when they could leave. "What time is it?" she asked no one in particular.

Rose shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. My watch is broken, and I haven't looked at my phone."

A shadow flitted over Martha's face at the mention of a broken watch. Chantho shrugged, saying, "Chan- I have no method of keeping time -tho."

All of the females glanced over at the Professor. "I've always been so late. Even my old watch is broken. Here, you can look at it if you want." Yana pulled out an old watch and handed it to Martha. Martha slowly turned the watch over and gasped as if stung. She turned around and fled the room.

Rose looked at the watch in confusion. She felt like she had seen it before. She frowned. She couldn't remember ever seeing one travelling with the Doctor. Well, no, she had seen it. . .almost as if it had been a part of her. Unbidden, her hand drifted to her pocket and withdrew an old watch.

As soon as her hand brushed, the watch, her mind was bombarded with a memory.

The end of Gallifrey was coming. She could feel it in her bones, and oh, she knew it was coming. Today she would die, if Gallifrey did not fall.

Shada had taken its toll on her, and she could hardly walk. There had been so little food, so little water, and so little space. She hadn't wanted to survive until today, the day she would be disintegrated. No, she had wanted to die the very first day she had come in. She had been on her third regeneration back then, but she had tried so hard to die. She was on her ninth regeneration now. She had done all she could to escape the slow torture, but nothing worked. Something about the prison forced regeneration.

And now, on the day everyone knew would be the last in this Time War, she would die. She would die because she had been just a tad foolish,

But maybe there was hope. There was too little, and she didn't think it would work no matter how hard she tried. She knew the Time Lords would try to save themselves.

Would they be distracted enough to allow her to escape?

The guards dragging her to her inexorable death were called away. She sighed in relief. Maybe she did have a chance, after all.

Without the support of the guards, she collapsed onto the ground. She dragged herself to the wall, her breathing labored and her senses clouded with pain. Blood roared in her ears. Trembling, she pressed a button and materialized on a TARDIS.

Gold flooded her vision. Pain spread throughout her body, eating away at her like every single cell in her body was on fire. The pain just lasted and lasted. She realized that she was shrinking. And shrinking. And shrinking. She was turning into an infant!

She gasped, the gold still changing her every cell. She leapt forward, praying that she could reach the chameleon arch. She had to change into a human, or the Moment would kill her.

She succeeded, and as the golden light died, a mew pain began. This pain felt even worse than the first, if that was even physically possible. She gasped, feeling one of her hearts stop existing.

Everything went black.

Rose panted as her mind freed itself from the strange memory, her senses returning to her. The first thing she noticed was a strange sizzling sound. She spun around, eyes widening as she realized what was happening.

Yana approached Chantho, a sizzling tube in his hand. He stretched his hand out just a bit further as Chantho raised her gun with trembling hands.

Rose knew that Chantho must have felt so hurt. Chantho loved people being truthful, and absolutely hated being lied to. Two people revealing they weren't whom they said they were in the same day must have felt worse than death to her.

Yana's cables were almost on Chantho. Hardly bothering to think, Rose leapt in front of Chantho.

Every cell was electrified as the cables struck her chest. She screamed, pain clouding her human mind. Her legs collapsed, and she hit the ground with a thud. She didn't even feel it through the pain. The electricity died down, but Rose was still too weak to move.

Chantho was trembling, but still, she fled the room in search of the Doctor. She found him near where she had left him. "Chan- Doctor, Doctor -tho! Chan- Rose is hurt -tho!"

The Doctor literally dropped what he was doing and followed Chantho. Martha and Jack followed, both worried.

After turning out of the hallway, the Doctor recognized where he was and sprinted towards the room where Rose was. Rose may be dying! Rose is with another Time Lord! Rose may be dying! kept repeating over and over again in his head like a tattoo. He didn't know how he could go on without Rose at least being alive. Even when Rose was alive in another universe, the Doctor could scarcely go on. He had tried not to go on. And now, if Rose died, did he even have a reason to keep on living? He shook his head free from his train of thought and hastened his step.

Rose was on the floor, her eyes barely able to stay open. The Doctor ran to her side and cradled her head. "Rose?" he whispered hoarsely. A tear dribbled down his face. A lump settled in his throat. "Rose, stay with me. Rose, don't die. Please. Please." His voice was scarcely more than a whisper, but it spoke of a plethora of unuttered emotion.

Rose gasped, her eyelids fluttering slightly. Without speaking, her fingers shakily moved into her pocket and took out an old-fashioned watch.

The Doctor's eyes widened at the sight. The human version of the Time Lady in a fobwatch would only lower the perception filter if the human was dying. "Open it," the Doctor commanded in a whisper.

Her fingers still shaking, Rose obliged. Immediately, pain flooded her entire being. She had felt it before, she knew. She could remember it. It felt good to be out of the watch. The watch had cramped her consciousness. But even still, she was a bit sorry to not be just Rose anymore. Rose, who was innocent. Rose who had not lived through so, so much.

The Time Lady blinked and grinned. "Hello, Doctor," she sniffed, raising an eyebrow. Memories flooded her mind, causing her head to ache slightly. Her mind felt full, like it had back on Gallifrey. She shuddered. She hated Gallifrey. She was infinitely grateful that Gallifrey had burned, that Gallifrey was no more.

But despite that the Doctor had gotten rid of Gallifrey, and that that act had saved her. She still resented him for what happened when she was younger, back on Gallifrey in her youth.

Rosahra was young — twenty-four, at the most. Theta had asked her to come with him and their friends to stick a teacher in a time loop. Usually, Rosahra declined the offer, opting to stay and work on her project, The Complete History of Gallifrey and All That It Could Be.

It was her pet project that had led Theta to calling her Rosetta, as in the Rosetta Stone. Fortunately, he called her that only when they were alone. If anyone else caught wind of her nickname, they would never let her live it down.

When she arrived at where her three friends were huddled, Ushas, Koschei, and Theta were already deep in conversation. Rosahra grinned and waved at her friends. They smiled and waved back at her. She picked up her pace, running into Theta's arms. He spun her around, breathing in the scent of her hair. He released her long enough to stare into Rosahra's eyes before pulling her into a snog.

Rosahra grinned against Theta's mouth. If she had to pick one word to describe the snog, it would've been wonderous. Rosahra and Theta had loved each other for as long as either of them could remember.

Rosetta, Theta thought into Rosahra's mind. Rosahra shivered in pure delight.

It wasn't until when they heard Ushas and Koschei sniggering that they realized Theta had said that out loud.

Rosahra pulled back, her blissful expression contorted into that of ire. "Theta." She whispered, feeling rather betrayed.

Rosahra turned her back on Theta and glared at Ushas and Koschei. They just continued sniggering.

Rosahra's chest constricted, her hearts clenching in hurt. Soon, a couple of the other Time Lords nearby had caught it too and were also laughing.

Rosahra stalked away, tears trickling down her face.

After that, the only one to really listen to her and not tease her was Romana. And, eventually, after the Doctor ran away, the Master. Then Romana had left with the Doctor, and the Master tried to kill Rosahra. That was when she was truly alone and turned her back on Gallifrey until the Time War.

Rosahra, the Time Lady version of Rose, was fuming. How dare he! she thought angrily, bitterness oozing through her heart. Without another thought, she slapped the Doctor, his tears wetting her palm.

The Doctor rubbed his cheek in surprise. "What was that for?" He snapped as soon as he could speak. But with a pang, he realized that his Rose was gone, replaced by this new Time Lady. He had just watched this girl die, and now her body was fine, but her mind had changed. Another tear slipped down his cheek as he brokenly whispered, "Who are you?"

Taking a deep breath, Rosahra answered, "The Stone. Took that from an old nickname, actually." Rosahra raised an eyebrow, smirking. Realizing that she was acting a bit nice for the man whose slip had caused her so much pain, she fixed the glare on him once more. The Doctor's eye widened as he realized what she meant. Rosahra added, "But I'd really rather be called Rosahra. Or even Rose."

It was the Doctor's turn to inhale sharply, even though he had already suspected the new Time Lady's identity. "Hello," he managed, after taking a minute of silence to see if he could guess how Rosahra survived. He couldn't figure it out.

Martha, coming up behind the pair, sniffed, "Doctor, Rose, Yana is still out there."

"Chan- he said he was the Master -tho," Chantho added, bitterness lacing her voice.

"Of all Time Lords to survive,it had to be you two. I bet the Rani and Romana somehow survived as well," Rosahra laughed. But there was still hurt and accusation filling her voice, even if she didn't particularly want it to.

Footsteps approached, a maniacal laugh following suit. All five people spun around in alarm. Subconsciously, the Doctor stretched his arm out in front of Rosahra, pulling her back behind him.

"Oi!" Rosahra protested, scowling. One thing she hated was being treated like a youngling. She was 845, and a good sum of those years had been lonely. She didn't want to be brought back to them. If anyone tried, she wouldn't go quietly.

Chantho, who stood behind the rest, levelled the gun at the Master's chest.

"Now, now, Chantho," the Master began, warning the malmooth woman to stop.

The other four spun around to look at Chantho, and once they saw what she was holding, stop her. But it was too late. Chantho shot the gun before dropping it. Both Rosahra and the Doctor could hear the Master's agony and their head. They winced almost in unison.

Chantho let out a breath. One of the people whom had toyed with her trust was gone. And it felt good. She felt strong. She scowled. She couldn't be thinking that. It was against everything she believed in to do so. But still, she did.

In this short period of distraction, the Master managed to slip onto the TARDIS and lock the door. As the Doctor realized this, he ran to the TARDIS door and jangled it. Rosahra picked up the sonic screwdriver where the Doctor had dropped it and picked it up, pressing a button. The TARDIS began to dematerialize as the Master's screams died down as he taunted the five in his new voice.

The Doctor rushed over to Jack, Rosahra following, tossing the screwdriver to the Doctor. The Doctor immediately began to sonic Jack's Vortex Manipulator. His brain had narrowed to tunnel vision, drowning out Jack's protests. The Master has my TARDIS. I must get it back. I must give the Master a second chance. Why did Rose have to be Rosahra? Why does Rosahra have to hate me? It was a complete accident! I meant to say it telepathically! How can I prove that to her?

Rosahra, on the other hand, was in complete turmoil. She had loved the Doctor, back in her youth. And she had continued to, if she was completely honest. But he had broken her hearts. After the Doctor had left the Master, the Master and Rosahra had connected and had even had a little bit of romance. But then he had tried to kill her when the drums were too loud, once. He had sworn that it was an accident, that the drums were a call to war. But it had still happened, and her heart had been broken again. And she had loved him too. Now, both men she had ever truly loved were back in her life. If she was being honest with herself, she probably would have thought about how she had loved the Doctor unconditionally as Rose.

The Doctor managed to get the vortex manipulator to work. Rosahra placed her hand on it and motioned for the others to do the same. Within seconds, they were out of the laboratory.

They landed with a thud in London, Earth, 2008, each person slightly sick from the time travel without a capsule.

**Disclaimer: Right now, I own my laptop. And a couple stories I've written. Maybe in a few years Doctor Who will be mine. Maybe. I'd like that.**

**As always, reviews are highly appreciated. Any sort of feedback makes me smile giddily. I have this entire story planned out, as well as an idea for a sequel. =D**

**I hope you enjoyed this! **

**~~Elf**


	2. Victors of the War part 2

**I should be able to update about once a week. Good news is that I'm sticking to this version, so no worries there. I have outlines for the next three chapters and two interludes. **

After they managed to recover from their time-hop, Jack smiled, "London 2008, we made it. That's fortunate."

Rosahra giggled. "Just call me Fortuna!" The Doctor also smiled, thinking about how he could live with Time Lady Rosahra/Rose so long as she could forgive him.

Rosahra, on the other hand, was thinking about how she should probably forgive the Doctor, and possibly the Master. But she didn't want to forgive them what they had done to her.

They rounded a corner. On a big screen pasted onto one of the buildings was a broadcast. They would have thought nothing of it because of its being a run of the mill political broadcast, but then they heard a phrase that was clearly no accident.

"What this country needs is a Doctor."

Five pairs of eyes widened. Rosahra sputtered, "The Master's the prime minister?! How the hell did that happen?!"

The Master kissed the woman standing next to him. The Doctor raised his eyebrow. "The Master and his wife?"

"Chan-how is that the Master -tho?" Chantho asked, confused. As far as she knew, the Master was an old man. Chantho had been around humans long enough to understand that humans wouldn't hit a certain age and then change their faces to look young again. She failed to see what was staring her in the face.

Jack, realizing that Chantho didn't understand that the Master wasn't human, explained, "The Master's a Time Lord; he regenerated. He changed everything about himself, but he's the same person at the core."

Rosahra's eyes flickered over to the Doctor before she could consciously stop them. The Doctor caught her eye, but as soon as he did so, Rosahra glanced the other way.

The Doctor sighed, absently running his fingers through his hair, making it even more sticky-uppy. There would be a long and winding road before he could get Rosahra to forgive him, he knew that much. He had accidentally ruined her life. It was just one of the many, many regrets that he carried.

In the meantime, Rosahra was thinking the exact opposite of what the Doctor was thinking. She knew, somewhere in her hearts, that she had already forgiven the Doctor years ago. She knew that she had forgiven him long before he had saved her life by destroying Gallifrey. But there was one problem with such; he had ruined her life forever. There was no way he could repay her that, she oughtn't ever trust him, and she certainly shouldn't have already forgiven him. At least, that's what she tried to tell herself. She wanted to hate the Doctor, but she knew it was absolutely useless. She still loved him, but she couldn't let him off easily. He, despite the fact she knew she loved him, deserved to suffer a bit by her hand. Somehow, though, she knew she couldn't last very long at that.

Martha interjected the two Time Lords' broodings with a suggestion of heading back to her place. After the day's revelations and the unexpected twists, Martha craved the tiniest bit of normalcy.

Everyone agreed to her suggestion without hesitation. And thus, they walked to Martha's house.

Rosahra looked at it enviously. On Gallifrey, she had been rich, and had very few people who had cared about her. On Earth as a human, she hadn't had much money, but she had had plenty of friends until Jimmy Stone. To her, Martha's flat was the sort of thing she would have loved to have grown up in.  
The phone rang, and Jack and Rosahra jumped back, startled. The Doctor, having met Martha's family, had half expected this already. Martha just sighed and turned it off, claiming that it was not important, despite it being about how her sister had gotten a job with the government as a PA at Downing Street.

Oddly enough, no one made the connection between Downing Street and the Master. Though, it could be hypothesized that they were all a wee bit preoccupied by what Chantho said in that very instant. "Chan- is that ticking supposed to be there -tho?"

Martha strained her ears for a second, wondering how the hell there was a ticking sound in her flat. But, try as she might, she could hear nothing.

Rosahra raised an eyebrow thoughtfully, also listening carefully. But, unlike Martha and unlike Chantho, Rosahra could barely hear a ticking sound. She looked over at Chantho and grinned. "Thank the universe for the sharp hearing of the Malmooth!"

Chantho managed a weak smile, but really, it was more of a grimace. Rosahra had recognized that she was fortunate that Chantho's species was great. While that would have been all well and good, Chantho was tinged with bitterness; Rosahra hadn't recognized her in particular.

"Chantho, where is the noise coming from?" the Doctor asked Chantho, staring in her face, his hand on her shoulder.

"Chan- from behind the metal box -tho," Chantho supplied, pointing at the television set slightly disdainfully.

"Of course!" the Doctor exclaimed gleefully, dashing towards the television set. Jack beat him to it, spinning the telly around. Strapped to the telly's back was a bomb, a real, ticking bomb.

"Everybody! Get out! Now! Out, out, out!" Rosahra snarled, shooing everybody out ahead of her. They were in Martha's SUV before the bomb went off; they had been very, very lucky that Chantho had heard it when she did.

Martha drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. Rosahra and the Doctor narrowed their eyes at her. Her tapping went on — one, two, three, four, one two, three, four. After another minute, Rosahra snapped, "Martha, what are you tapping?!"

Martha shrugged, too focused on the road ahead to be bothered with answering.

Jack fixed Martha with a stare, "Martha! You can't go after your family! That's what they're expecting!" Rosahra and the Doctor nodded their agreement.

Martha sucked in a deep breath before snapping angrily. "I'll do what I like!" She was sick of being told what to do, and this time, her family was on the line. She needed to know that they were safe, that they were not in danger.

The car stopped in front of the Joneses' house. Francine and Clive Jones stepped out of the house, followed by an unknown blonde.

Martha gaped. She would never have thought her own parents to betray her. No matter how obnoxious they got, they loved her. Sadness rushed into her, making her jealousy over Rose seem so completely shallow.

Rosahra looked down at Martha, understanding exactly how Martha felt. After all, the man she had loved betrayed her, once upon a time. But, despite appearances, she had forgiven him. Maybe, one day, Martha could forgive her family. No matter how much they hurt her, they were still her family, and they would always be her family.

Her hands flew from her steering wheel as soon as she consciously noted the lack of Tish and Leo. She dug through her jacket pocket, her fingers trembling, looking for her phone. A minute later, she found it.

She dialled Leo's number. 0.20.8445.7263. Her free hand curled on the steering wheel as she backed the car away.

The people at the house fired their guns at the car. Chantho's eyes widened, petrified.

A bullet crashed through the back windshield. Martha barely managed to get the car out of range before another bullet was fired.

"Martha, we have to ditch the car!" Jack shouted over the rising stench of fear.

Martha nodded, frantic. But, finally, they pulled over next to a bridge and jogged down to the street beneath it.

The phone call finally made it through. Martha didn't care what she said. She just had to get Leo to hide. She couldn't let Leo be taken. She managed to get him to understand just as the Master hijacked the call.

As soon as Martha realized that she was no longer speaking to her brother, Martha snapped, fury roiling in her blood. "Let them go, Saxon!" She all but shouted at the phone.

Rosahra's eyes widened as she processed what her friend had just said. Faster than a Weeping Angel could move, Rosahra snatched the phone from Martha's grasp. "Koschei," she acknowledged,slightly icily, but also slightly warmly.

"Rosahra," the Master replied in a kind. He paused for a second, thinking. "Where is Gallifrey?"

Rosahra raised her eyebrows slightly. "It's gone." She almost added 'good riddance', but she didn't really want the Doctor to hear her say that one.

"How can Gallifrey be gone?!" the Master demanded through clenched teeth. He drummed his fingers on the table. One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four.

Rosahra blinked, maintaining her aura of deadly calm. "Ask the Doctor. I can put him on the phone if you'd like."

"Ooh, Rosetta! I know where you were for the last half of the Time War," the Master sneered smugly.

Rosahra froze, her eyes widening. "How do you know that?!" He fingers turned white as they gripped the table with as much force as she could muster. Her arms trembled slightly.

"Didn't everyone? I'm surprised the Doctor doesn't know. Or does he? Wouldn't he just hate you? Oh, by the way, I have been tracking a little girlie for the past eighteen months. And that's not the best part: I can feel her in my head!" The Master asked, sniggering. He put on his best innocent face.

Rosahra scowled. "What does she call herself?" Rosahra wanted the girl to be a Gallifreyan, but she knew that was impossible. But still, she could hope.

"She goes by MC. We haven't been able to find her real name," the Master laughed.

"I don't know her. I think I'll hand you over to the Doctor now," Rosahra said, nervousness now in her voice. Even though she didn't know this girl, she didn't want the Master getting his hands on MC, her future daughter. Rosahra shakily handed the phone over to the Doctor.

The Doctor begrudgingly accepted it. "Master." He spat the name as if it were bile on his tongue.

"Doctor," the Master said with more venom on his tongue than when he greeted Rosahra. He still couldn't forgive the Doctor for leaving him, for leaving him alone to deal with the drums.

Without preamble, the Master snapped, "What did you do to Gallifrey?"

Rosahra flinched. She could hear the Master, despite not being the one on the phone. The Doctor whispered his response, tear worming down his cheeks. "You didn't see the final days of the War. The Time Lords, I had to destroy them. Romana gave me the Moment."

Rosahra placed her hand on the Doctor's shoulder, even though she wanted to keep up the appearance of not having forgiven him. The Doctor smiled faintly at her. She knew he appreciated the small act of comfort.

"You must have been like God!" the Master exclaimed enviously. "Two almighty civilizations burning at your hand?" The Doctor could almost hear the Master's smile.

The Doctor trembled. "Stop it!" He couldn't take the guilt streaming back into him. He couldn't handle it a second time.

"Say my name!" the Master commanded, clearly not going to give the Doctor any relief until the Doctor uttered the word 'Master'.

"Master," he whispered sadly.

"Now run! You're public enemies numbers one, two, three, four, and five!" the Master laughed from the other end of the phone call.

Rosahra, hearing this, glanced around before resting her gaze on a security camera. She bent down and tossed a stone at the camera, breaking it.

From where he sat, the Master raised his eyebrows. "Ooh, you public menaces! I said run!"

"Chan- what do we do now -tho?" Chantho asked shakily. She had obviously been traumatized by the day's events.

"We run," the Doctor said quietly, flipping the phone shut.

The Doctor grabbed Rosahra's hand, and they all ran. Soon, they found a small, abandoned warehouse near the Thames.

Martha, as soon as they arrived, excused herself, claiming to want to go get chips. She also volunteered to take Chantho with her. Chantho agreed enthusiastically, wanting something slightly resembling normal after her day.

Jack went off to talk on the phone, despite all of the protests.

This left Rosahra and the Doctor alone in one of the warehouse's corners. "Rose, Rosahra," the Doctor whispered, turning the Time Lady's head to face him. "Rosahra, I want you to trust me more than I think I've ever wanted something before." The Doctor's hearts were beating at an impossibly fast pace.

Rosahra's breath caught in her throat despite her respiratory bypass system. Rosahra couldn't actually believe she was hearing this. The Doctor actively seeking forgiveness?

The Doctor leaned in, his breath tickling Rosahra's ear. The Doctor was incredibly nervous. Rosahra hated him. What would she do to him, knowing his name. Taking a deep breath to muster his courage, he whispered his name in her ear.

Rosahra's mouth fell open. Her hearts were beating quickly as a warmth sped into them. She felt as if she were drowning, gasping for a breath of air. "That's your- that's your name," she finally managed to stammer once the sensation faded. She stared at the Doctor in awe, trying to comprehend why he had just told her his name. Rosahra, despite her attempt at wanting to be angry at the Doctor, couldn't manage it, not now that he had told her his name.

The Doctor was completely nervous. His breath caught in his throat. Yet, despite this, he was in some state of oblivion. After all, he had just told the woman he loved his name. The Doctor nodded mutely before saying. "Do whatever you want to me. I am literally yours. I belong to you. Do as you will." He stared imploringly into Rosahra's eyes, making sure that she knew he was being completely and utterly sincere.

Rosahra stared at him, stunned that he would trust her that much. She had tried for so long to harbor anger at him, but now she knew with absolute certainty that she did not hate him nor could try to hate him anymore. "Why would you tell me your name?" She brushed his cheek. She knew that the Doctor's hearts were racing.

"I love you," he whispered, terrified that he had gone to far, that Rosahra would actually hate him.

Rosahra stared back at the Doctor. All of the Doctor's doubts would soon be taken away. Rosahra whispered in reply, "You know, I'd consider telling you my name for that one."

All four hearts were beating too quickly for health. "But what?" the Doctor asked, not daring to hope that she would actually tell him her name. If she told him her name, they would essentially be married and able to become completely bonded without repercussions.

Rosahra looked down at her feet, gritting her teeth. "I myself don't know my own name." She shuddered, trying not to remember how it had been tortured out of her during her time at Shada. Those were not years she wanted to think about, let alone relive. She had forgotten her name quite early on in her time there. Most people in Shada did. It was easier not to remember yourself than to feel all of that endless agony.

The Doctor looked stricken at the thought, not wanting to know how one could forget her own name. He didn't want to know what was so awful. He wanted to destroy whomever had done it, though. He wrapped his arms around her, stroking her hair gently with his fingers.

Rose whispered, half smiling, "You just said a wedding vow to me, and I physically can't reciprocate it, even though I kind of want to." Her last clause turned upward at the end, much the way a question would. She was obviously slightly embarrassed.

The Doctor licked his lips before replying softly, "What's more tragic is that we can't complete the bonding." He definitely wanted to kiss Rosahra. All he'd have to do would be to just turn his head. No. He couldn't. They weren't actually married. They weren't bonded. They couldn't Do this. Not to mention the world was in grave danger.

Rosahra smiled, "Definitely." She was quiet before thinking for a second, thinking about how she would be snogging the Doctor if she were to know her name. But she didn't, and they needed to focus.

Fortunately, Martha and Chantho arrived back, causing the pair to separate. "Any news?" Martha asked anxiously. She was praying that Leo had managed to get away. Tish too.

"Sorry, no; those two were making the tension level a bit too high for focusing," Jack replied, grinning at Rosahra and the Doctor. Both Rosahra and the Doctor blushed, not letting Jack know what had actually happened. They both knew that the ex-Time Agent would have a field day with that.

"Get to it, then!" Martha snapped, once again drumming her fingers. One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four.

"Stop that!" the Doctor snapped. He scowled at Martha. Why was she drumming her fingers? What was the Master doing? How was he doing this?

Martha glared back at the doctor, wondering why he was like this. If it was because of Rosahra she was angry at the other woman. But then, she knew that something had changed between the two, that they were too close to each other to be separated. Her fingers stopped drumming.  
Jack opened up the laptop and pulled up a login screen. Enter your password, he read. He typed in his password. GwenIantoToshikoOwenJackCassandraDoctorRose.

The Torchwood homepage popped up. Jack hoped Rosahra and the Doctor weren't watching because they would probably both throw a fit.

Unfortunately for him, both were watching with wide eyes. "How could you work for Torchwood after everything they've done?!" the Doctor all but screamed. Rosahra rested her hand on the Doctor's shoulder. He looked down at it, smiling reassuredly. But still he was angry. "After everything they did?!"

Rosahra felt the need to interject in favor of her friend. "I worked at the Torchwood in the Pete's World. They weren't bad. They helped me get back here, after all. But I can't vouch for this Torchwood. But I do know Torchwood had the potential to do good. Maybe Jack's changed it." Rosahra raised an eyebrow. She glanced at Jack and then at the Doctor and back again.

"Yeah, I changed it," Jack agreed. He was greatly relieved that one of the two Time Lords stuck up for him.

"Are you on his side?!" the Doctor demanded. He couldn't bear it if Rosahra wasn't upset about being ripped from his side. He turned to Rosahra, who looked back at him with a desperate expression.

Disregarding the consequences, disregarding the fact that it was completely inappropriate and would cause them both pain, he pulled Rosahra to him. Her eyes widened as the Doctor leaned in, his fingers gripping her arms like a vise. She knew she would have bruises later from that later.

Rosahra gasped pain spreading through her hearts just as she knew it would be through the Doctor's as their lips met. She shivered, her breath stuck in her throat. The Doctor forced open her mouth with his tongue. Rosahra closed her mouth on his tongue, forcing it to stay inside her mouth. The Doctor moaned slightly, jerking Rosahra back to reality, sputtering slightly.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor mumbled, straightening his clothes. He was blushing, his hearts burning as they beat at a million miles a minute.

Rosahra was left in a similar state. Except, she muttered, "We can't do that until we're bonded. You know that." She grinned at him, causing him to blush further. She had enjoyed their kiss, even if they really couldn't, shouldn't, do that before they were properly bonded. It would slowly kill them both.

Rosahra turned to where the laptop was. A file was blinking in the bottom of the corner. Jack, still in control of the mouse, clicked on it.

The file opened, and all five watched with bated breath.

A figure wearing a silver padded suit, similar to that of the slabs, appeared on the screen.

"MC?!" Jack demanded, eyes wide. Rosahra's eyes widened. So this was the MC that the Master was hunting? Jack gaped at the person on the screen. "So your death was faked after all!"

"Obviously," MC snorted disdainfully. Had Jack seriously thought she was dead? It was a fake that only regular, non alien-aware people would buy into. But, apparently, she was wrong. That did not happen very often, admittedly. "Only idiots would fall for that one! Nestene Duplicate! By the way, Jack, never date a Nestene Consciousness! They're bloody rubbish!"

"A Nestene? That's low, even by your standards!" Jack smirked, laughing. The Doctor raised an eyebrow, wondering who the hell this MC was. Rosahra was slightly horrified that the possibly Gallifreyan woman was like a female Captain Jack. Jack and MC could form an innuendo squad or something, she grumbled to herself.

"Speak for yourself, Jack!" MC replied lightly, before inhaling deeply.

Whatever MC was going to say next was cut off by Jack, who now spoke in a serious tone. "You really shouldn't fake your own death."

Despite their inability to see through the eye-shield she was wearing, all five could tell that she was glaring quite angrily at Jack. "Don't you dare tell me what the bloody fucking hell I can do, Harkness. Because I be deader if I hadn't faked my death. Or Saxon'd've captured me and managed to use me to get a hold of this world." MC was clearly angry. And she had every right to be. The man she had dated at one point had no right to tell her what she could and couldn't do.

"Lay off the anger. Why have you called us?" Jack snapped, still a bit surprised by MC's outburst. When he had known her better, she was determined and refusing to stay in one place. She reminded Jack of the Doctor in that, in her restlessness, in her manners, in the way she saw the world.

"As it stands, I won't be able to hold Saxon's men off for much longer! I was stupid! I just can't stand to let anyone get hurt! Either way, I'm cornered. And even if I'm wearing my suit, this won't work well. The suit just repairs itself, and won't let me die. But I'd need completely rejuvenated bits of my own DNA to exit my coma. Well, that or yeah. So, I need to warn you about Saxon and about what he is doing!"

"Chan- we know he's the Master, if that's what you mean -tho," Chantho interrupted.

"Can't say I knew that!" MC laughed. "But, he's only existed for 18 months. Everything about his history is forged. He first existed as the Minister of Defense when he launched the Archangel Network. But it goes beyond that. There's a disturbance in time! I can see it! He's built a paradox machine. And those Toclafane, the only logical explanation is that they're future humans." MC was looking a bit jumpy. There was a loud crash in the background. then there was screaming. "I'm going to kill Saxon!"

Rosahra opened her mouth as if to protest, "Don't murder him!"

MC shook her head. "I've murdered more than one person." Noticing everyone's expression. She added, "Sorry. Must dash!" She nodded somewhat condescendingly to the five. With that, she turned around, shutting off her camera and microphone.

"She seems like your type, Jack," Martha joked. Frankly, everyone agreed.

"Ooh, we dated for a while," Jack responded, obviously reminiscing. MC had been quite the woman, but he could never get her to reveal her real name, even if they had been intimate. The funny thing was that he couldn't remember her appearance, as if she had purposefully wiped it from his mind.

"You in a stable relationship?" the Doctor snorted incredulously. "Don't you typically do one night stands?" The Doctor couldn't say he was a fan of the idea of anyone doing that. But then, he wasn't human, and they were. Then his eyes widened as he fully processed MC's words. "Wait, did she say she felt a disturbance in time?!"

"She's also telepathic," Rosahra explained. At all of the confused looks everyone tossed her, she added, "The Master told me on the phone." The Doctor's eyes widened at this. Rosahra nodded, "She may be Time Lady, but I don't think she was alive during the War."

"Didn't MC mention the Archangel Network? Whatever this is, it's in the phones," Jack said.

The Doctor nodded, and he and Rosahra set to work. Chantho glanced at what they were doing. "Chan- may I be of assistance -tho?"

The Doctor ignored her, but Rosahra said, "If you'd collect the phones, that'd be lovely, thanks."

The Doctor looked at her questioningly as he worked. He wanted to know her plan with the phones. Rosahra gave him a look that pretty said 'Are you an idiot?" The Doctor put on his best pouty face.

When Chantho returned with the phones, Rosahra set to work removing them from the Archangel Network.

Both Rosahra and the Doctor finished quickly. They explained what they had done. Martha suggested that they exchange phone numbers so that they could call in case they got themselves separated.

Rosahra took her phone from Chantho's hand for a second. She pressed a few buttons on the touch screen. Rosahra sighed, placing her free hand on Martha's shoulder. She felt sorry for the human woman; she understood almost exactly what she was going through. "The Jones family has been taken in for questioning. Looking for a Leo though."

"We're talking about my brother on the run! How did this happen?" Martha exclaimed.

Rosahra smiled slightly. "Jack, teleport!" Everyone understood what she was doing and therefore placed his or her hand on the vortex manipulator.

Rosahra blinked as everyone else looked slightly sickened. "8:02 AM. We're on the Valiant."

The Doctor was the first to recover as he was the least sickened. "The Master's here. I think the paradox machine has already activated." Just feeling the paradox machine was giving him a headache.

That's when the Master decided to show up. "Ooh, look who decided to come along!"

"Koschei," Rosahra sniffed. It was hard knowing that whatever they had had for a little while in the past was gone. But Rosahra was in love with the Doctor, so it didn't really matter. "What is your plan? I don't fancy being captured."

"The Toclafane have already descended. They will decimate the Earth's population. Ooh, are you scared? You always loved Earth so much, Doctor. Watch as it falls!" The Master laughed. Lucy clung to his arm, giggling slightly.

"You will fail; you are not capturing me, and you will not get any of the others either," Rosahra snapped, moving in front of her friends. She could not let the Master get his paws on any of them. She glared at the Master, looking the full glory of the Bad Wolf.

"Oh, you wouldn't want to be captured by yet another time Lord, would you, Rosetta? No after Shada, would you?" The Master sneered.

Rosahra froze as everyone turned to look at her.

**So, any guesses as to whom MC could possibly be? Oh, and I have figured out how to include Donna in this story. YAY! I loved Donna.**

**And, as always, reviews make me insanely happy. It's always good to review. So, please review? Review? Review? Review? Please? Anyone?**

**~~Elf**


	3. Victors of the War part 3

The Master smirked at Rosahra as the Time Lady studied the ground in front of her feet. She didn't want to think about it. She wanted her past to remain just that: in the past.

"Rosahra, what does he mean 'Shada'?" the Doctor asked Rosahra gently. He put his hand on her back. He wanted her to open up to her. But she refused. She didn't even look at him. But she didn't remove his hand either.

Rosahra coughed, continuing her study of the floor. She could still feel everyone staring at her. "It means that I realized what the Time Lords were doing was wrong," she snapped, directing her anger at the Master. She did not want anyone to know about Shada. Why did he have to bring it up? She continued, "They were becoming like what they were fighting. Romana and I both noticed. She had changed, hardened, too. As had I. We were both in our third regenerations at the time. They were considering resurrecting Rassilon. So we planned. I built a device to draw out the daleks' and all the other bad guys' life force and use it to return all the Time Lords and Ladies to how we were before the war. Romana didn't manage to keep the guards away long enough. They found me just before I could activate the device. No one stood up for me at my trial, not even Romana. I was forcibly regenerated and stuck on Shada until my execution date, which was the day that turned out to be the last day of the War. Their deaths are the only reason I'm even alive. This is my tenth body." Rosahra kept her voice level and calm, neutral and emotionless. The Doctor understood that that was the only was she could keep herself under control. As it was, Rosahra was fighting to keep her emotions from claiming her.

"Ooh, Romana must have hated Gallifrey!" The Master grinned. "Setting two different Time Lords up to destroy it?"

Rosahra couldn't stand that. He voice was dangerously calm and flat. "Why does everyone say that reverting the Time Lords back to the way they were before the War may as well be killing them? They are still alive in a form? Anyhow, I hate Gallifrey! I am utterly glad that it has vanished from the heavens." Rosahra let a small smile grace her lips.

"You're glad Gallifrey is gone?!" the Doctor squeaked. How could anyone, especially Rosahra, be glad her planet was gone? Was Rosahra really that type of person?

"Yeah, I am," Rosahra snapped. "I said I forgot my own name. I was tortured at Shada. The other Time Lords are the reason I forgot it. I have reason to hate them. I don't hate you, Doctor. I don't hate the Master. I only slightly resent Romana, but not really. And I don't have that harsh of feelings towards the Rani." Rosahra had hoped never to broach the topic. But, apparently, she was not going to be given a choice. She had been so broken during those years. Thinking about it caused her pain. But telling others? That caused her emotional agony.

The Doctor inched past Jack and Chantho and Martha, pulling Rosaha into a hug. She looked up at him, stunned that the Doctor still wanted to be with her. The Doctor grinned down at her, moving in slightly.

Suddenly, however, the Doctor was ripped away from Rosahra by one of the Master's guards. "Oi! Watch it, Koschei!" Rosahra sniffed.

Martha glanced around the room, searching for her family. "Master, where is my family?"

Rosahra didn't dare risk a glance back to look at Martha. That was fortunate, too, because the guards standing behind the Master seemed to be looking to take any apparent opening.

The Master smirked at Martha's question. Rosahra wasn't entirely sure that even she wanted to hear the answer. The Master didn't oblige Rosahra's wish not to hear where Martha's family was. "On Earth in a room with the Toclafane — just like your precious Doctor soon will be!"

The Doctor, almost fully out of the room, stared up at the Master, clearly terrified. Rosahra stared back at him sadly. The Doctor scrabbled for purchase on the walls. HE failed. The walls were too smooth. Had he survived the Time War only to die here?

He would have been a bit more comforted if Rosahra had done more than just stare sadly at him. He felt like he was going to his grave. No doubt he was.

The Doctor was dragged into the hallway and quickly stuffed in an airy room. Some Toclafane flew in afterwards. It was all he could do to not scream. He backed away.

Meanwhile, with the rest of the group, Rosahra had slowly walked backwards to Jack. She placed a finger on his wrist, her grip only tight enough to allow for basic telepathy.

'Jack!' she thought, trying to get his attention. Jack jumped, alarmed at hearing someone else in his head. Rosahra smirked, 'Jack, it's just me!'

'Rosahra?' Jack thought back, confused.

Rosahra grinned, despite the situation. 'Hello! But in all seriousness, Jack, I need your help to get the Doctor out of that room.'

Jack nodded, grinning back. He knew why it was him that Rosahra was asking — he was immortal. 'How do we free him?'

'On the count of four,' Rosahra thought back. She was literally twitching with anticipation. She had to go free the Doctor. 'One! Two! Three! Four!'

Rosahra and Jack grinned at each other before rushing at the guards. The guards, stupefied, stumbled out of the way. Rosahra and Jack raced around the corner.

Martha and Chantho blinked as the other two ran. Fear chilled Martha's blood; no one could stop the Master from hurting either of them.

"Harry!" Lucy Saxon exclaimed. She smiled at her husband. "I think I'd - I think I'd like to speak with you." The Master sighed before following Lucy deeper into the Valiant.

Chantho and Martha glanced at each other.

There was a loud noise outside — a helicopter. Though they couldn't see whomever stepped out, there was a definite bang audible throughout the entire ship. Chantho, who had the better hearing of the two, could scarcely make out some shouting.

"OH, YOU FUCKING IDIOTS! YOU TRACK ME FOR 18 MONTHS! I HAVE SOMETHING YOUR MASTER, HAROLD SAXON WANTS, BLOODHOUNDS! LIKE, IMMORTALITY, PERHAPS? OR MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE I'M NOT BLOODY HUMAN! AND BY THE WAY, YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE LET ME TAKE OFF MY HELMET!" There was a loud bang as if someone had fallen to the ground. And indeed, all ten soldiers had fallen to the ground, some were shot by the others, the rest were punched, but all had been kissed.

There was silence, and Chantho listened with bated breath. Martha strained her ears. Something rattled above them, and a panel in the ceiling moved. A heavily suited and helmeted figure they recognized as MC from the video dropped to the floor, landing neatly. "Hello! You're Martha and Chantho?"

Martha blinked at her. Chantho replied, "Chan- how do you know that -tho?"

MC was smirking under her helmet. "I'm psychic." She laughed as Martha and Chantho stared at her in disbelief. "Nah, I wouldn't know, but the Doctor and Rosahra keep projecting! Honestly! It's bloody distracting!"

Martha raised an eyebrow. "Why are you here?"

MC seemed to be glaring at her. "You humans are so thick! I should know! At least you aren't as rubbish as Nestenes!" Martha just stared at her. "I was unable to defend myself. Well, not really, but I wanted to have a word with Mister Saxon."

"Chan- he and Mrs. Saxon just went that way -tho," Chantho replied thankfully. MC nodded, likely grinning. She had been on the run for 18 months with nothing except her suit, her bag, and the clothes on her back. And she was still unable to use her immortality suit lest she be recognized as MC. Except, there were times she had to be MC. She may have be a bit psychopathic, but she still didn't like to see innocents hurt.

She burst into a light jog, which to most people would have looked a bit like a hard run. It was mere minutes before she caught up with the Master and Lucy. She was glad she had arrived when she did. She wanted a word with Saxon, and now it looked like she had a person to protect.

"Mr. Saxon, it has come to attention that you want a word," MC hissed. Though, her tone suggested a slight smugness that infuriated the Master to no end.

"MC, where are your escort and your handcuffs? You should be ashamed. So much running? You must cower in terror at the slightest noise!" the Master exclaimed, expecting the remark to irritate MC.

MC laughed. "Hardly! I'd think you're the one jumping at your shadow — you've tried to squash all resistance! It's quite cute. Oh, and about the guards, two are dead — killed by their comrades, and the rest are knocked out and kissed by me." The Master shot her a confused look. "Oh, hallucinogenic lipstick, got to love it! they'll be out for a while, so why don't we chat?"

The Master stared at her, surprised that the woman, who was supposed to be a prisoner, was threatening him.

MC stared at him for a moment, gazing at him through her visor. Truth be told, it looked more like she was either undressing him with her eyes or piercing the depths of his soul. The Master, despite himself, blushed faintly. "Item number one one — stop abusing Lucy. She's nice enough, and you need to stop abusing her. Secondly, you need to stop hiding behind your power, seeing as it's really not impressive at all. Makes for a rubbish villain, truth be told. Thirdly, why the bloody fucking hell did you find it so important to chase me across the Earth? I found that to be quite the nuisance."

"But you're still my prisoner!" the Master refuted, despite the fact the woman was most clearly not chained to a wall in the ship's underbelly.

"Ooh, am I? What are you going to do about it?" MC snapped, raising an eyebrow. Not that the expression would help anything — it was impossible to see in through the visor.

The Master rounded on Lucy. "Do you know how she got in?" Lucy shook her head, quivering slightly.

"I don't know," Lucy replied carefully. The Master struck her on the face. Lucy stumbled backwards, hitting her head on the wall. She collapsed on the ground, unconscious.

MC stared at the Master as if considering something. "Now you've done it!" MC punched the Master in the cheek with her right arm. He fell unconscious. MC grabbed his wrist and dragged him back to the main room.

While MC had been off doing that, Rosahra and Jack were busy trying to find the Doctor. Fortunately, he wasn't particularly difficult to find. The room he had been stuffed into was the first door on the right, and did not exactly possess the hardest lock to pick. In fact, Rosahra didn't find the picking of the lock to be remotely difficult.

The Toclafane had the Doctor cornered in the corner of the room. Rosahra glared at the Toclafane for a second. All she knew was that she couldn't let them hurt her Doctor. "Oi! Toclafane! Hi!" Rosahra shouted.

"You should have let me do it!" Jack grumbled. "At least I'm immortal!"

Rosahra shrugged. "My idea!" The Toclafane flew toward her. She started to run, but was quickly stopped by one of the Toclafane's lasers hitting her in the chest. Rosahra gasped, collapsing onto the ground. The Doctor ran to her side, cradling her, even though he knew she'd have to regenerate shortly.

The Doctor leaned down, tears dripping onto Rosahra's face. "Don't cry," Rosahra whispered, staring up at the Doctor. The Doctor gently touched his lips to hers, barely more than the gentlest of pressures.

"Stand back," Rosahra whispered quietly looking at the Doctor and then at Jack. The Doctor obliged.

Gold tinged Rosahra's fingertips and face. Slowly, the brightness increased, as did the pain. There was agony as gold encompassed all of her vision. Gold. Gold. Gold. That was all she could think of.

Then suddenly, there were more colors. Rosahra gasped, sucking in air. But even as she did so, gold was emitted from her lips. she stood up, straightening her clothes, which were a tad bit singed. She glanced around at her surroundings before whispering, "Run!"

The Toclafane had stopped trying to get any closer while she had been regenerating, but now that she was finished-ish, she didn't want to press their luck. They raced back to the central room, where they noticed a heavily suited woman holding a rather grumpy looking Master. Jack immediately knew that she was MC; he had seen her often enough, but admittedly, none of those times had been in the last 18 months since MC had been declared dead.

MC stiffened as soon as she saw Rosahra. She quickly shook herself out of her shock, however, and sniffed arrogantly. "Sorry I'm late. This little bugger's helicopter is unbelievably slow." She jabbed a rude finger at the Master when she said 'this little bugger'. "By the way, I think I'll have him arrested for domestic abuse. He knocked his wife unconscious. However, that'd be if I were in a nice mood. This," she waved her hand, "is not a nice mood. Prepare to die. . . at some point in time!"

"Don't kill him, please; we're the only three left," the Doctor protested.

"I don't want help from you," the Master whined, making a disgusted face.

MC shrugged before snapping, "If I were to want your opinion, I would have asked." MC was in a mood that would make a tempest look tame. She'd allowed herself to be caught so that she could be useful and get rid of Saxon all by herself. And then the Doctor had told her 'no'. Fo twenty-five years, she had been the highest authority on aliens and highest alien authority on Earth. Well, she knew that was only because she had never worked with the Doctor, but even then, she was above UNIT and Torchwood and acted it too. And even though she had been on the run from all of the Earth's governments for the past 18 months, she still had never been told no. The last time she had been reprimanded was the first time she had skipped school back when she was thirteen. She was currently 38. And the Doctor had just told her no as if she were a petulant child. To sum it up, she was not amused. She tightened her grip on the Master's neck slightly. "Don't try anything funny."

As MC was focusing on her resentment and the Master, Rosahra and the Doctor had gotten into an argument, at which Jack could only laugh.

The argument had started when a stray piece of hair had fallen in front of Rosahra's eyes. She was instantly unhappy at the curly lock. "Oh, why did I have to be ginger — again?" She pouted slightly.

The Doctor stared at Rosahra, dumbfounded, confused, and jealous all at once. How could Rosahra not like being ginger?! "You're lucky! I'd love to be ginger!"

Rosahra smiled slightly, "I hate being a ginger. It's too, erm, gingery! Well, at least it's dark ginger. I think I can live with that."

The Doctor continued to stare at Rosahra, "Why don't you like being a ginger?"

"My third regeneration was a ginger," Rosahra stated flatly, as if that explained everything. When the Doctor continued to stare at her, she explained further. "My third incarnation was the one that got me stuck in Shada."

"Oh," the Doctor replied, his entire demeanor shifting. He placed an arm around Rosahra's neck.

Rosahra smiled sadly yet gratefully. "It's fine. And thank you." She stared up at the Doctor, who was now only a few inches taller than her own height. She was grateful for the extra few centimeters.

"What are you thanking me for?" the Doctor whispered into Rosahra's ear. Rosahra shivered.

"Everything," Rosahra whispered in reply. At that, the Doctor couldn't resist leaning down to kiss Rosahra gently on the lips. Rosahra sunk into the kiss, even though pain surged in her chest. All too soon, in both of their opinions, they were forced to release each other because of the pain.

Jack smiled at them. MC, who was no stranger to snogs and other things, was looking a tad disgusted.

While all of this was happening, Martha and Chantho had not been idly watching. Once they had remembered that there was a paradox machine, they had decided that they needed to find it.

Something touched their minds, causing Martha and Chantho to start in surprise. Quickly, though, the TARDIS had identified herself. Chantho was still slightly skeptical. The TARDIS had sounded feeble.

Martha was worried about her. The TARDIS had always been strong enough to travel through the Time Vortex without a second thought. What had happened that had made her so ill?

Martha and Chantho resolved to find out. The TARDIS pushed an image of the Toclafane and of the humans into their minds.

It dawned on Martha, who whispered, "The paradox machine is the TARDIS." Martha broke into a jog, heading towards where she expected the TARDIS to be. Chantho followed Martha uncertainly. How did the Master create the paradox machine from the TARDIS? How was the TARDIS still alive? How long did they have?

As it turned out, Martha's hunch was accurate. But how could they possibly dismantle a paradox machine?

Chantho had already asked a nearby guard for a gun. The guard had complied. Well, he had fainted when he saw Chantho, and Chantho had taken the gun from him. Martha raised her eyebrows at the other woman, picking up a gun from a second guard.

"Chan- Let us reverse the paradox -tho!" Chantho laughed, before asking Martha to open the door to the TARDIS.

Martha quickly obliged, fumbling for her key. Once inside, both women began to shoot the center of the paradox machine with the guns. Some of the wiring sparked, and then, suddenly, the entire world seemed to gain speed in its orbit around the Earth.

Back in the central room, the reversal of time had caused MC to land on top of the Master, which was awkward, considering the fact that MC wanted to kill the Master stone dead. The Doctor had landed right next to Rose, and Jack had landed alone.

"Hello," Rosahra whispered to the Doctor, grinning.

The Doctor grinned in return, whispering the sentiment back.

Jack, sprawled across the floor, coughed, glancing at MC. MC shrugged back. MC couldn't care less what the others were doing. She wanted time to be normal. The paradox had been making her feel sick.

Back in the TARDIS, Martha and Chantho had fallen to the ground. They were proud of what they'd managed, two women who had a mad, unrequited love for different Time Lords.

The wind stopped as time went back to normal. Martha and Chantho sprang to their feet and raced to the center room of the Valiant. When they arrived, they saw almost exactly what they had expected, if they had known that Rosahra had regenerated. Rosahra stood next to the Doctor in the center of the room. Jack stood off to the side. MC was giving the Master the evil eye.

MC shook her head. "Saxon, I'm going to kill you, now."

The Doctor stared at her. "WHAT?!"

MC glared at the Master. "One, I'm a genius. Two, I was stopped from helping to save the Earth. Three, I was chased around the Earth by this lunatic. Four, he turned all the world governments against me. And five, I am sick of him." She grinned, even though no one could see that through her helmet. She pulled out a well concealed gun and shot the Master.

The Master sucked in a shallow breath and exhaled it. Rosahra and the Doctor raced to his side. "Just regenerate! Come on!" Rosahra hissed. A tear streamed down the Doctor's cheeks.

"All those years, Doctor," the Master spat, his face read from pain. "And now I've won!" With that, the Master allowed death to claim him. that was his final victory, peace and an afterlife that was Doctor-free.

"Koschei!" Rosahra whispered as the Doctor rounded on MC.

"Why did you do that?!" the Doctor spat.

"If we let him go, then he would have done this or something like this again. There is no prison that could hold him; he's that clever. So what else could I do with him?" MC hissed, fixing her helmet.

"We could have put him in the TARDIS?" the Doctor asked, not entirely sure of himself. He knew MC had a point about the Master's cleverness.

"Chan- he could have made another paradox machine while you went and got something -tho," Chantho added, defending MC.

Lucy Saxon appeared in the doorway. "Harry?" She then spotted the body. She was alarmed, but everyone noticed how she did not look particularly sad.

"We should head back to the TARDIS," the Doctor interjected, starting down a corridor. The others followed and entered the TARDIS, dragging the Master's body with them.

Only Lucy Saxon was surprised by the size. "It's bigger on the inside!"

"I always loved that bit," the Doctor admitted. Rosahra laughed, grateful to be inside the TARDIS once more. MC smirked, though no one could tell.

"Why aren't you surprised?" the Doctor asked, realizing that MC hadn't been in the least surprised.

"Joan Redfern gave the Book of Impossible Things to her grandson, who in turn, gave them to me, his adopted granddaughter," MC laughed, staring at the Doctor.

The Doctor stared back for just a second before flipping random levers around the TARDIS console.

**End of Victors of the War. Next up an interlude! After that, it'll be The Malmooth!**

**I would also like to say that I don't curse, even though one of my characters uses cuss words. **

**Also, I'd love to thank everyone for the reviews; they make me very, very happy! **

**I would appreciate it if everyone reviews! =D**

**~~Elf**


	4. Interlude: Many Partings

***Cough* Sorry that it took a week to upload this interlude. . . . I was having troubles writing the goodbyes. **

"Doctor!" Jack protested. "I want to go back to my team at Torchwood." Everyone stared at Jack.

"Okay," the Doctor agreed flatly. He didn't want his friend to go. He felt guilty about abandoning Jack. Rosahra moved to the Doctor's side.

Martha and Chantho stood to one side, behind the Doctor and Rosahra while MC stood awkwardly in a back corner, fiddling with her spacesuit.

"Here we go!" the Doctor exclaimed, smiling at Rosahra, who tentatively smiled back. "Cardiff!" Rosahra firmly placed her hand in the Doctor's.

Rosahra, the Doctor, Martha, and Jack stepped out of the TARDIS onto a busy, nondescript Cardiff street. Rosahra stared up at the Doctor, who stared back at her. "It's Sunday," the Doctor moaned, distaste flooding his voice.

"I'm sorry," Rosahra replied simply.

Jack arched an eyebrow at the pair's exchange. "You know, back when I was a little boy in the Boeshane Peninsula, I was the first one to be signed up for the Time Agency."

"Congratulations?" Martha said, not entirely sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She figured from Jack's tone that joining the Time Agency was quite the accomplishment.

Rosahra raised an eyebrow, wondering why Jack said that like an accomplishment if the Agency really had stolen two years of his memory.

"Thanks," Jack replied moodily. "The people of the Peninsula had their own nickname for me: the Face of Boe. I know what my last words'll have to be. Mind the spoilers, would you?"

Rosahra laughed, even though she was stunned. How could Jack one day be a giant telepathic head? She glanced up at the Doctor, whose eyebrows had nigh vanished into his sticky-uppy hair. He was clearly thinking along the same signs as Rosahra. One glance at Martha said that she was probably the most surprised of all of them.

"Okay," Rosahra agreed. Some golden regeneration energy escaped her lips. She looked down at it distastefully. To herself she mumbled, "I hate regenerating. All ginger now! Me, ginger! Oh, why did I have to be ginger again!" The Doctor looked at her in faint amusement, even though she had already told him her problem with being ginger.

Rosahra let herself be dragged back into the TARDIS by the Doctor. Martha followed behind them.

As soon as they were back in the TARDIS, looking at MC and Lucy Saxon, Rosahra exclaimed, "Earth, 23rd century, coming right up!"

"What are we going there for?" Martha exclaimed, confused. She wanted to make sure her family was alright. At the same moment, the Doctor protested, "What? Why?"

MC turned to face the others, "My suggestion, actually. If Lucy, here, were to return to Earth in our century, people would pity her or cast her wary glances. She's a good woman, and she doesn't deserve that. She can have a new life if we were to drop her off in the 23rd century. She's already agreed, and I've forged the documents necessary. Thank me later."

Needless to say, the Doctor was shocked that this was the same woman who had killed the Master without even a hint of regret. He nodded dumbly, both him and Rosahra dashing around the console, flipping switches and pressing buttons.

The TARDIS shook, causing everyone to fall down except for MC, who barely managed to remain upright. Everyone else shot her a look. MC shrugged. "I have practice with faulty transport — no insult to your TARDIS. I'm more than anyone gives me credit for." It was apparent that under her mask, MC was smiling enigmatically. MC leaned back against the wall. "Miss Lucy Cole Saxon, ready to start your new life as Lucinda Cole? It's waiting for you right outside those doors." MC motioned towards the doors,all the others watching.

Lucy smiled tentatively, her fingers trembling ever so slightly. Martha and Chantho nodded encouragingly at her as she slowly walked out the doors. Hesitating for mere seconds only, she pushed open the doors and stepped outside. Without looking back, she walked out to start her new life.

Martha stared at the Doctor for a long, drawn out moment. "Doctor, I need to go home."

"What?" the Doctor exclaimed, alarmed. How could Martha be going home after all that they'd done together?

"See, I want to take care of my family; I'm a doctor in training, after all. And I have people I want to look after. You know, I used to fancy you, but you've got someone. Time I found myself someone too. Take care of Rosahra, and perhaps you should take MC and Chantho with you. Now take me home. Please," Martha replied with a small smile.

Glumly, the Doctor set the coordinates for Martha's flat. Martha waved goodbye before pulling her phone from her pocket, tossing it to the Doctor, her eyebrow cocked. She stepped out of the TARDIS.

The Doctor sighed, pulling Rosahra into a hug, whispering, "Don't you ever leave me." Rosahra stared up at the Doctor, seeming to be fighting her instincts, which were telling her to snog the Doctor no matter what.

"Never," Rosahra replied instead, letting her lips graze the Doctor's cheek. The Doctor shivered at the contact, especially as she blew a puff of regeneration energy at him.

A cough from Chantho made the pair step apart.

MC headed towards the doors. "Drop me off in Timbuktu; I need to get my bag and take care of a plethora of issues. Namely, Osterhagen Key and erasing the orders to capture me and a couple death sentences. See you around!"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at Rosahra before reluctantly setting the coordinates. There was something MC wasn't telling them, and he needed to know what. As soon as it was clear that they had landed, MC dashed through the doors, not sparing so much as a glance backwards or a wave.

Rosahra shook her head. Only then did they hear Chantho whisper, "Chan- I am sorry -tho."

The whirled around, but it was too late. There was an empty space where Chantho had been and Jack's forgotten vortex manipulator was missing as well. The Doctor and Rosahra set the TARDIS to follow Chantho. The TARDIS shook violently as she was forced to return to the beginning of the end of the universe.

**Hi! Happy last day of May!**

**So, I changed my cover image. Can you tell what it is? There are two right answers. . . .**

**I will tell you now that we see Chantho, Jack, Martha, and MC again. **

**Also, I have a question to ask the lot of you. The question is as follows:**

_**Should Rosahra adopt a new title? If yes, what should it be?**_

**Reviews make me very, very happy. Actually, I grin a bit like an idiot when I see one . . . . I like grinning like an idiot though. So the point remains: Please, please, please review!**

**~~Elf**


	5. The Malmooth part 1

**I apologize in advance for the minuscule length of this chapter. They will probably all be this length or a little longer, with the exception of the interludes. I can say that I've had this adventure slightly planned for a while, but I haven't actually wanted to write it. I hope it turn out reasonably well. =D**

Rosahra and the Doctor were effectively kicked out of the TARDIS, who was smoking behind them. To the Doctor's shock, the extractor fans had turned themselves on. To Rosahra, it was obvious why the TARDIS had objected to coming to this place — there was a fixed point in time.

The landscape was dull and grey, the starless sky looming overhead like an anvil. The land looked so bleak, despite the city riddled into the side of the canyon.

An insectoid woman — clearly of the same species as Chantho — stare at the TARDIS in a combination of terror and awe. "Tith- what is that magic box -raan?"

The Doctor grinned at the woman, glancing at the TARDIS, which stood proudly behind him. "This isn't just a box," the Doctor began.

Rosahra beamed back at the Doctor, finishing his sentence for him. "It's our time-travelling spaceship we call the TARDIS or Time and Relative Dimension in Space." The malmooth woman blinked.

"Tith- welcome to Malcairisso -raan," the malmooth woman said, shaking Rosahra and the Doctor's hands in turn.

Rosahra and the Doctor grinned at the malmooth woman. "My name is Rosahra and this is the Doctor," Rosahra said, nodding at the malmooth woman. "What is your name?"

"Tith- Thithraan -raan," the woman, Tithraan, replied. "Tith- do you want to come into my house for tea -raan?"

"That'd be lovely, thanks," Rosahra replied, trying to prevent the Doctor from being rude. The Doctor glared at Rosahra.

"We should really be going," the Doctor protested. Rosahra rolled her eyes. she knew it'd be a few minutes before he was too enticed by the idea of universe-end tea to not join Tithraan. "We need to find Chantho!"

Tithraan's eyebrows raised. "Tith- which Chantho do you want to find -raan?"

Rosahra raised her eyebrows at that. "Why don't we go discuss this over tea?" Both of the others understood that her question was a command, not a suggestion. That much was obvious from her tone.

For Rosahra, it was incredibly odd for people to listen to her. Back on Gallifrey, she had been nobody except a laughingstock. No one would listen to her. Not ever. Not even when she was taken to the Gallifreyan High Council. No one had listened to her explanation. They had pigheadedly decided that they were all that and everything they did was right. Rosahra understood that Romana had been forced to stick her in Shada lest she be forced into Shada too. But still, no one listened. It was a great surprise that people were actually listening to her, Time Lady Rosahra.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, Rosahra grinned, following Tithraan back to her house. When they arrived, Tithraan placed a kettle on her stove. A young malmooth girl, five or six years old, pranced through the doors to the kitchen. "Chan- who are you -tho?" the girl asked upon seeing the non malmooth visitors.

At those words, Rosahra's mouth fell open. This was a young Chantho. There were two Chanthos at the same time. How could they discuss young Chantho's future in front of her? That could lead to a temporal disaster. A paradox.

"Tith- would you mind playing outside -raan?" Tithraan asked the little Chantho. Little Chantho nodded and bounced out of the room.

"So there are two Chanthos?" Rosahra asked, seeking confirmation. She reached for the Doctor's hand. The Doctor grinned as their hands met.

"Tith- yes -raan," Tithraan replied, staring at Rosahra.

"How long has this second Chantho been here?" the Doctor asked before Rosahra could say anything.

"Tith- five years -raan," Tithraan replied, staring at the two strangers.

Rosahra and the Doctor glanced at each other, alarmed. Rosahra broke into a grin. "Your driving is still a bit off!"

The Doctor managed an 'Oi!' even as he burst into hysterical laughter. As soon as the Doctor started laughing, Rosahra couldn't help but join in, burying her face into where the Doctor's neck met his shoulder. The Doctor shivered slightly. Rosahra glanced upwards at him. Knowing what Rosahra was thinking he was thinking, the Doctor blushed, also knowing that Rosahra was quite right.

"Later," Rosahra whispered to the Doctor, causing another shiver. "When I figure out my name so I can tell it to you." Unable to help himself, the Doctor leaned down and captured Rosahra's lips with his own.

Much to his disappointment, Rosahra gently pushed him away. "There's a crisis, Thete. Continue that later when you know my name." Instinctively, the Doctor's heartsbeat quickened. Rosahra grinned, shaking her head.

Tithraan coughed. "Tith- do you want discuss our leader, Chantho, or not -raan?"

Both Rosahra and the Doctor nodded, flushed.

"Tith- she came five years ago -raan. Tith- she is psychic -raan," Tithraan said before she was interrupted by the Doctor.

"She's not psychc — she just knows what's going to happen," the Doctor corrected. Tithraan stared at him, thoroughly confused. Rosahra giggled, shaking her head.

She then realized that she ought to explain what the Doctor meant. "What he means to say is that the older version of Chantho has already lived through these events once and therefore knows what's going to happen."

Tithraan nodded slowly, processing Rosahra's words. "Tith- how did she acquire time travel -raan?"

Rosahra and the Doctor shared a look. The Doctor was the one to answer the question. "Erm, we sort of left the vortex manipulator sitting out in our transport?" Rosahra hit the Doctor on the shoulder. The Doctor stared at her and quirked an eyebrow. Rosahra punched him lightly on the shoulder, causing the Doctor to rub his shoulder exaggeratedly. Rosahra shook her head, grinning.

Tithraan stared at them. "Tith- she established this thing called an atmospheric shell -raan. Tith- she has even established trade with the other systems and begun the Utopia project -raan."

The Doctor and Rosahra stared at each other, horrified by this realization. Chantho couldn't have started that project! It was way too soon. If it had been started this soon, then the malmooth could have finished it before the humans and the Master had ever arrived. What had Chantho done? How could she even think of causing this huge a paradox even if the universe were already ending?

Rosahra and the Doctor stared at Tithraan, "She can't do that."

Tithraan stared at them for a long moment, trying to figure out what was wrong. The way she saw it, these clever inventions built by a future version of her daughter were saving them, even if they weren't supposed to exist. Why couldn't her daughter save her? Why was it apparently so wrong to save others? Tithraan glared half-heartedly at the strangers.

"Right," the Doctor began, tugging at Rosahra's hand. "We should probably be off to find Chantho now."

Rosahra stared at him and shook her head. "Doctor, Tithraan told us all about Chantho and is clearly not pleased with us. Perhaps we should try to make her dinner or something?" she whispered into his ear.

The Doctor coughed and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Yes, well, I think we're going to cook for you, Tithraan."

Tithraan stared at the pair, clearly dumbfounded. "Tith- what are you going to make for me -raan?"

The Doctor and Rosahra stared at each other, each hoping the other would come to the rescue. As it turned out, they had a bit more time to think on that topic because at that very moment, young Chantho sprinted through the doors.

"Chan- Toriik was teasing me again -tho!" young Chantho whined, entering the kitchen, closely followed by a slightly older malmooth boy, probably Toriik.

The boy pouted petulantly. "Tor- was not -iik!"

Chantho glared at him, sensing Rosahra's, the Doctor's, and Tithraan's growing amusement. Though, for the Doctor, that could have been the possible escape from making food.

"Chan- was too -tho," Chantho protested, crossing her arms. Toriik shook his head, pouting.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the exchange. Rosahra laughed, burying her face in the Doctor's shoulder. The Doctor instinctively wrapped his arms around Rosahra protectively, his head resting on top of hers. Of course, this was less comfortable than usual mainly due to the fact that Rosahra had gained a few centimeters, rendering her only an inch shorter than the Doctor.

Rosahra finally broke free of the Doctor's grasp, grinning at his reproachful look. The Doctor stuck his bottom lip out further. Rosahra reached up a hand and traced the inside of his lip with it. The Doctor smiled, before licking her finger. Rosahra quickly retracted it and wiped it on her jeans.

She then realized how horrid she must have looked. She knew she was still singed from her regeneration. She also realized that her clothes were quite the mess from other dirt and grime as well. Even more than that, though, she still didn't know what she looked like except for the fact that she had wavy, dark ginger hair reaching down past her shoulders, that she had freckles, and that she had light peach skin.

The Doctor seemed oblivious to Rosahra's train of thought, continuing his infamous pout. Rosahra turned to face Tithraan, having come to a decision about the matter called food.

"We'll cook some vegetables," she said. Rosahra looked up to see the Doctor making a face, but she didn't know whether it was about the veggies or the cooking. Rosahra patted the Doctor's shoulder.

The Doctor sighed. Rosahra shook her head, moving toward the stove-esque thing in the corner, dragging the Doctor with her. The Doctor didn't bother to protest. Rosahra grinned and took out what appeared to be the necessary dishes.

After a few minutes, of a valiant attempt to cook, everything went wrong. The Doctor accidentally left a piece of a flammable substance too close to a stove.

Naturally, it caught on fire. Unfortunately, it was a kitchen fire, something that neither Rosahra nor the Doctor understood how to deal with. Rosahra ran and fetched a bucket of water, which she glumly noted was provided by Chantho. Rosahra raced back inside and dropped the water onto the fire, causing the flames to spread considerably.

"Out!" the Doctor shouted! Everybody out!" Tithraan, Toriik, and young Chantho obeyed. The Doctor stayed behind a moment to personally drag Rosahra out of the house.

Rosahra protested, just as the Doctor expected. "It's my fault! I can't burn people's homes down willy-nilly!" The Doctor chuckled, scooping Rosahra up into his arms. Rosahra rested her hands on the Doctor's shoulders before protesting, "Oi! I can walk! And we can't just leave the fire!" The Doctor did not set her down.

The fire spread across the room, burning everything in its wake. The Doctor scarcely managed to get Rosahra through the door before the fire encompassed the entire house.

Rosahra pushed herself out of the Doctor's arms just in time to be caught by what seemed to be a malmooth police officer. Rosahra punched the man in his face. The man sputtered, but quickly regained his footing and bound Rosahra's hands behind her back.'Why do I always go to prison?' Rosahra thought gloomily. The Doctor wasn't faring any better.

The guards dragged Rosahra and the Doctor to what appeared to be the central building. The interior appeared to be a cross between a throne room and a science lab. In the center of the room was Chantho. The adult Chantho, to be precise.

"Chan- you two are here just in time -tho," Chantho smirked. To Rosahra, the expression was utterly foreign. When she had known Chantho, Chantho was kind and caring, brilliant too. The Chantho she knew wouldn't do this.

"Chantho?" Rosahra asked, puzzled, at the exact same moment that the doctor exclaimed, "For what?!" The Time Lords glanced at each other.

Chantho picked up a remote, her fingers hovering over the big, threatening button. Rosahra stared and then tried to free herself from the guard. But it was to no avail. Chantho's fingers pressed the button. Rosahra stopped fighting and stared at the Doctor, who stared back at her.

A rumble made everyone with the exception of Chantho stumble to the ground. An image appeared in the middle of the hall. Chantho smirked, watching the scene in the picture. The image appeared to be of Malcairisso, but it wasn't one that the Doctor or Rosahra recognized.

The planet itself was completely different. For starters, there was a sun and the sky, and the sky itself was a magnificent purple. There were plants. In fact, the entire view seemed to be plastered with vegetation.

Chantho grinned smugly at them. Rosahra hung her head, resting it on one of her palms. Chantho stared incredulously at Rosahra. "Chan- are you bored -tho?!"

"No," Rosahra laughed. "I'm just not amused." She glanced at the Doctor when she said this. He laughed with her.

Chantho cocked an eyebrow. "Chan- you do realize you are going to go to prison and help me -tho."

Rosahra's laughter died instantly, genuine fear plaguing her eyes. The Doctor's laughter followed suit as soon as he noticed how terrified Rosahra looked. The Doctor tried to crawl over to her, only to be stopped by a guard.

Rosahra brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. 'Prison. Murderer. You'd kill us. I'm sorry, but you're going to prison. You'll be disintegrated tomorrow." Her memories were a tattoo in her head. She couldn't escape it. The walls of her cell were closing around her, squeezing her until she broke. She bit back a sob, but that just caused her to shudder, gasping for air.

The Doctor tried to reach Rosahra again but was once more blocked by the guard. This time, from seeing Rosahra break down so utterly, the Doctor was even more desperate. He reached for his sonic screwdriver, but a guard stunned him. The two guards dragged them down into a cell block. The entire time, Rosahra didn't bother to put up a fight. The Doctor was not happy with this change in Rosahra.

As soon as they were locked into a cell together and the guards had walked away, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, which, miraculously, had not been taken away from him.

The Doctor sonicked the lock. For the first time since being told that they would be in prison, Rosahra shook herself free from her memories. She glanced up, glad to see that they had a chance of escape.

He stretched his hand out towards Rosahra, who gladly accepted it. They ran out of the prison cell together, giggling. It was almost as if the last ten minutes hadn't happened for Rosahra. The Doctor was stunned by this change in demeanor. Before he could ask about it, though, he decided that it would be better to keep his mouth shut.

Chantho's voice floated through the hallway. "Chan- I know you have escaped -tho. Chan- I am sorry, but I must save my people- tho. Chan- I want everyone to be safe and for there to be no more lies -tho."

Rosahra and the Doctor glanced at each other. Her reasons were noble, they both knew that. But she couldn't save her people without ending the universe early. She would cause a paradox, and this Chantho would cease to exist altogether.

Chantho continued from her hiding spot, "Chan- I will take my people into our past -tho. Chan- we will survive, and I will no longer be the last -tho."

Immediately, pity for Chantho welled in the Doctor's hearts. Chantho'd have to let all her people die.

Rosahra immediately shouted after to the hallway, where she figured Chantho would be. "You know, Chantho, that you're not the only one who's been the last of a species. The Doctor and I, we are the last of the Time Lords. Yes, it's sad to be the last of a kind, but we can go on!"

Chantho emerged from her hiding place. "Chan- I am sorry for your loss -tho. Chan- get them, guards -tho!"

Rosahra and the Doctor whirled around, spying the guards closing in around them. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He pointed it at the equipment lining the hallway. The equipment sparked, providing the necessary distraction for them to escape.

The Doctor fled down the hall, Rosahra only a few steps behind him. But that was all it took. A force field powered up between them, trapping Rosahra in with the guards and Chantho.

The guards caught up to her and dragged her back to Chantho.

The Doctor slipped into Oncoming Storm mode, but nothing could be done. So he ran, and with any luck, he would recruit others to help rescue Rosahra.

**Sorry the beginning was a bit... erm ... fluffy... It was just the deep breath before the plunge, so to speak. The next few chapters will contain more angst in them. **

**Yeah, so Chantho isn't evil; she just doesn't want her species to die, even though their death is a fixed point in time. So, in my opinion, she makes for an interesting antagonist.**

**In other news, I had to make a slideshow for science, so the title page ended up looking like the opening credits of David Tennant's era. =D The last slide was a picture of my profile pic with the words 'Live Long and Prosper' on it. So yeah, I'm a whovian, trekkie, and warsie, and fan of Lord of the Rings (whatever we're supposed to be called). Well, to be fair, I like the Silmarillion better. Still, though. **

**Until next week!**

**~~Elf**


	6. The Malmooth part 2

**So, I have decided to officially update on Fridays. And yes, I know this is a Wednesday. The only reason I am posting today is because my friend, KatieAmyPond, is not going to be able to read fanfiction for a month. I decided to update early so she can read the conclusion to 'The Malmooth' before she goes out of town. Without further ado, here is the chapter.**

After the Doctor escaped, he meandered back to where Tithraan was. If he were to rescue Rosahra, he'd need backup. He wasn't sure how Rosahra would handle prison, judging by her earlier reaction.

The Doctor sighed. He was getting a very bad headache and was feeling a bit sick to his stomach. The fact was that Chantho was messing with a fixed point in time and messing with her own personal history. That was way more than enough to pain his time senses. If something wasn't done anon, both he and Rosahra would be quite ill, and time would be ruined, causing a giant, time-munching, reaper-barfing, paradox hole that could easily destroy all of time and space. Needless to say, time was running out, and the Time Lords could feel it.

The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair. "Tithraan, I understand that your daughter is only trying to save her people, but if she does so, the universe will die. Will you help me save the universe?" The Doctor was well-nigh in full Oncoming Storm mode due to his anxiety about Rosahra.

Tithraan glanced between the tempestuous Doctor and the young Chantho and back again. She placed her hand on Chantho's shoulder. "Tith- we will help, but only because if we don't there will be more damage -raan," Tithraan conceded, after a great measure of thought.

The Doctor exhaled slowly, relieved.

Chantho and Toriik bounced up, grinning at each other. "Tor-we'll help -iik!" Toriik exclaimed, grinning broadly, his eyes gleaming.

Chantho smiled with just a bit more reserve than her older brother. Chantho tugged on her brother's arm and began to run in the direction she suspected the lair was. Well, to be fair, it was the right direction, and she knew exactly where it was. Toriik followed all too eagerly.

"Wait!" the Doctor cried after them. Chantho and Toriik turned around, pouting slightly. "You have to be careful! Let me go first!"

Chantho gave the Doctor an exasperated glare. "Chan- why would you be any safer than me or my brother -tho?"

At this, the Doctor merely raised an eyebrow. Sighing, both kids trotted back to their mother. The Doctor grinned and began to walk towards the city hall.

Back in the laboratorial dungeon, Chantho was threatening Rosahra. "Chan- you must help me save my people -tho! Chan- could you bear making me the last of my species -tho?" Chantho stared at Rosahra."Chan- you know what it's like to be last — you can't wish for me to be the last!"

Rosahra stared at Chantho, evaluating her options. If she ran, the guards would have no qualms about stuffing her in a cell. She didn't need even more time in prison. Shada had been awful. If she were to be stuck in jail, she didn't know if she could take it. The guards at Shada had tortured her. Tortured her so much. Tortured her until she forgot her own name. And they had forced her to regenerate. She had tried, tried so hard not to regenerate. But something about that cell had forced her to against her will. She would have been so broken after breaking out of that cell on the last day. She was lucky to have been Rose, have been human when she was. Even so, what had happened still ached in her soul.

If she obeyed Chantho, she would have essentially destroyed all of time. She couldn't do that without serious repercussions, namely time ending all at once.

She realized what she needed to do — fool Chantho. But the woman was smart. She could notice if Rosahra messed up the project.

Rosahra came to another realization; the Doctor would not be able to ensure that the fixed point in time happened. He had committed more than one genocide. The Doctor would not have the heart to ensure the deaths of another entire race. Rosahra knew with a pang that she would have to be the one to kill the malmooth. A tear leaked from her eye; the malmooth were good people. She didn't want to kill them, but it was the malmooth or all of time.

Rosahra sighed, wiping the tear from her face. She couldn't let Chantho know what she was thinking. With a heavy heart, Rosahra replied, "I will help."

Chantho grinned, happy. The woman who had lied and told her she was Kuri Hunt was on her side. She was glad that her friend was on her side. She didn't really want to go against her, even if Kuri — Rosahra — had abandoned her for the Doctor.

Chantho led Rosahra to a long table covered in a plethora of clunky equipment that could have belonged to this time or a way distant time back on Earth. Rosahra kicked one of the machines onto the floor.

Chantho gasped in shock and opened her mouth to protest vociferously. Rosahra held up her pointer finger in Chantho's direction to shush her or tell her she needed a moment. Chantho shut her mouth.

Rosahra smirked, wiring together the beginnings of a device. However, just as she was about to connect to wires of a circuit together, the ground shook, sending Rosahra tumbling across the floor, sprawled on her back. Chantho would not have had much better luck, except when she stumbled, she stumbled into the table, allowing for her to stand semi-upright. Naturally, Chantho recovered her position first, but Rosahra was back at her station on the floor mere seconds afterward.

Rosahra quickly connected the wire to the switch and grinned. "Almost there, Chantho!"

Back outside the city hall, the Doctor was pacing back and forth in front of the building, examining it for any apparent weaknesses. The Doctor knew that he had to rescue Rosahra.

Tithraan watched the Doctor, her eyebrows cocked in muffled amusement. the Doctor shot her a glare. She shrugged her shoulders in reply. Chantho and Toriik giggled, seemingly playing a game of tag. Tithraan decided to focus on them instead of on the Doctor.

The Doctor was relieved at his new lack of audience. He could now search for a tangible weakness in the wall. He finally found a small crack. After sonicking it, however, he discovered that widening it would cause the entire building to collapse, which was definitely counterproductive.

The Doctor sighed, running his hand through his hair while rubbing the back of his neck with his other. Oddly enough, this caused him to look as if he were trying to give himself a noogie.

Toriik noticed and began to laugh hysterically. The Doctor turned and sat against the wall, scowling at Toriik.

The ground shook, knocking everyone to the ground except the Doctor, who was already sitting down.

The Doctor was helpless, and he was not happy. There was no conceivable way to slip inside to rescue Rosahra. That gave him a bit of time to think.

He was happy not to be the last Time Lord any longer. But then there was also the fact that this woman, Time Lady, had some issues of her own. The Doctor wished she were stronger so that he wouldn't have to comfort her because, frankly, he was probably not a person she'd want comforting her.

Inside the lab, Rosahra was putting the finishing touches on her device. Chantho was grinning at the Time Lady. When Rosahra glanced up at her friend-ish, Chantho asked, "Chan- is it ready -tho?"

Rosahra nodded, glancing up at Chantho. She pursed her lips thoughtfully before pinching her wrist, biting her lip. Finally, she spoke quietly. "You need to put, to put your finger there." She pointed at a small notch on the surface of the device.

Chantho stared at it for a moment, and Rosahra watched with bated breath. Tentatively, Chantho placed her hand where Rosahra indicated. As soon as Chantho's hand touched the metal, Rosahra grabbed her wrist and dragged Chantho down the hall. "Chan- what are you doing -tho?!" Chantho snapped, trying to break free of Rosahra's grasp.

"Look, my device will ensure the fixed point will happen! That means it's programmed to kill only the malmooth. So, what am I doing? I'm saving your sorry hide!" She raised an eyebrow, wiping stray ginger waves out of her face with her free hand as she ran.

Chantho's eyes widened as she screamed, "No! No!" Rosahra knew that to Chantho, this was both an expression of grief and a curse.

Rosahra pulled Chantho along, even though Chantho didn't particularly want to leave. "Chantho, come on! If we stop, you die, so come on!" She ran even faster, essentially dragging Chantho behind her.

In the space of a minute, they were out of the building. The Doctor leapt to his feet and exclaimed, "Rosahra! What happened?!"

Rosahra gave him that told him that she'd explain later. "Come on! Those three can't stay here or they'll die!" With her free hand she grabbed young Chantho's hand. Young Chantho proceeded to grab Toriik's wrist. Tithraan grabbed the hand of older Chantho. The Doctor merely ran after the others.

Toriik stumbled, falling flat on his face. The TARDIS was just beginning to be visible on the horizon.

"Come on, Toriik!" Rosahra shouted, continuing to run. She turned to make sure that the young malmooth boy was still with them. He was not. She shrieked, "Toriik!"

The others immediately stopped as Rosahra turned around. Tithraan immediately ran to her son's side. Chantho, the older version thereof followed closely behind.

Young Chantho stayed behind with the Doctor, peeking out in horror as she watched her brother in his version of tears.

Rosahra glanced between the two groups, evaluating the situation. "Doctor!" she cried, "take young Chantho into the TARDIS to prevent a paradox!" With that, she raced over to the three malmooth. She didn't bother to check if the Doctor had obeyed her instruction.

Rosahra knelt down next to the boy. "We can't stay here. Come on, we'll fix you up in the TARDIS. But if we don't move now, you'll die! Stay here any longer and the death wave will catch up to you!" Her hearts were racing in her chest.

She leaned down and tried to help Toriik up. He winced when she touched his arm. "It's badly bruised and slightly scraped. Legs!" She felt his legs. Toriik let out a whimper when she touched it. The leg was broken. Rosahra whispered, "I am so sorry, but your leg is broken, Toriik. We can't save you."

Tithraan opened her mouth, but Toriik moaned, "Tor- just go, Mum -iik!" Tithraan shook her head, cradling her son's head.

Chantho gasped, turning to Rosahra. "Chan- I left my brother once -tho. Chan- I can't do it again -tho."

Rosahra shook her head. "You'll die! And how do you remember that?"

"Chan- it just came back to me -tho. Chan- I must remain here-tho. Chan- don't stay here and watch us all die -tho. Chan- I understand what you did-tho."

Rosahra inhaled, sniffing slightly. She turned her back on the three malmooth, trying desperately not to listen to the screams of the dying. Blood roared in Rosahra's ears, a particularly painful memory enveloping her.

Rosahra was still going by the Stone. The Stone had just finished her device. She was actually quite proud of it. She was brilliant; she knew that, but technology was not her best subject. Her best subject was definitely language. Well, language and history. But she was more than competent; this device proved it.

She just had to press a button, and the daleks would be destroyed, the Time Lords restored. She grinned, even if this version of herself, this version of all her friends and enemies would cease to exist.

Romana had asked her to do this. Naturally, the Stone couldn't resist the challenge issued by the woman who was, essentially, her only friend.

All the Stone had to do was press the button, and she'd be glad to do it. She just wanted to savor the last few minutes the way she was.

She didn't hear the footsteps approaching from behind her. Arms caught her from behind, dragging her out of the room. Just as she was about to be pulled around a corner, she saw a tall Time Lord throw her machine against a wall. It shattered upon impact.

Rosahra shook her head free of the memory. She heard the screams of the dying and the now dead, and she locked them behind walls in her mind so that they couldn't plague her. She would deal with the repercussions later.

She ran into the TARDIS, her clothes dusty. The Doctor stared at her stormily, and Chantho's eyes were the size of saucers.

"I had to make sure time wouldn't fall apart because a fixed point in time didn't happen," she deadpanned to the Doctor. She turned to Chantho. "Chantho, your future self didn't know what happened. I need to put these memories behind walls in your mind. Do you trust me to do that?"

Chantho nodded hesitantly, but before Rosahra could act, the Doctor placed his hands on Chantho's temples and did what Rosahra said needed to be done. Rosahra gaped in disbelief.

As soon as the Doctor removed his hands, Chantho collapsed, sleeping. The Doctor proceeded to pilot the TARDIS into the future.

Still ignoring Rosahra, the Doctor left Chantho in the beginnings of the new refugee camp.

Finally, the Doctor turned on Rosahra, positively furious. The intense disgust in the Doctor's face made Rosahra want to cry, but she wouldn't, not over something the Doctor felt. He had hurt her far enough. She was wrong to think that he had changed, that he would be there for her.

When the Doctor spoke, he snarled, "Watch what you have done." With those words, the Doctor piloted the TARDIS into the sky so that they she could watch as all the malmooth died.

**As I said, a bit sad. Feeling a bit teary actually. . . .**

**In further news, I will try to finish the interlude between this chapter and the next 'episode' by Friday. BTW, the interlude will see the return of MC! **

**However, the story will probably be quite sad for a WHILE. **

**Oh, and I have finalized my episode list. At least, I think I have.**

**I will probably have more time to write now that I have my finals and therefore nice half days of school. We get out at like 10:40, so I am quite happy. And then it is summer! Thank Gallifrey! **

**~~Elf**


	7. Interlude: A Tempest Brewing

**So, I wrote this on Wednesday and Thursday and just waited for Friday to post. Yeah, so this interlude will see the awaited return of MC. And sorry for the shortness, but this ****_is _****just an interlude. And despite the short length, this interlude is vitally important to plot developement. Judge it by the size, do you? Sorry, I just had to put that in here.=D **

Rosahra's feet dangled out of the TARDIS doors as she watched the results of her machination. She could see the death radiating out from the center of the conglomeration.

Rosahra flinched, but she couldn't let it bother her too much. She couldn't cry, not now. If she let anything break through her walls, she wouldn't be able to stop. She had so much pain buried. She couldn't ever deal with it all at once. She had to slowly work through it, and she didn't know if it would ever be sorted through.

Meanwhile, the Doctor slouched against the console. How could Rosahra show so little emotion after what she had done? How could it be something that didn't even affect her whatsoever?

Then it hit the Doctor. She wasn't any better than the other Time Lords, and he would treat her as such. Not that he would kill, her, mind; he would just treat her coldly and have as little contact with her as possible.

Rosahra closed her eyes, unable to bear watching the malmooth stop in their tracks and fall down, doornail dead. She couldn't bear it. One more death, one more scream was all it would take to break her. Yet she held herself together, letting no visible signs of her pain slip through to her outside. Rosahra clung to her last shards of sanity, of humanity, of Rose with all her might. She couldn't slip into the oblivion of pain. If she were to do that, she would crack, and she would feel every ounce of pain that plagued her in Shada. Rosahra slowly closed the TARDIS doors.

In a huff, the Doctor set the coordinates for Earth. There was bound to be something going on there that would allow him to take his mind off of Rosahra. He knew he had loved Rose, but why did she have to save Chantho? Why did she? Because she was Rose, he reminded himself. But she had left this emotionless Time Lady in her stead. The Doctor decided to make the best of the situation. He hadn't killed them all; that was something at least. And she claimed to forgive him and that he save her life by killing them all. But why was she so cold to others? That essentially made her the stereotypical Time Lady. If only she would act like there was some sort of pity in her hearts. He neede this woman, this Time Lady, to have compassion. He did feel a bit romantic attraction towards her, to say the least, but he wished she would not be so unaffected by committing genocide.

He needed this woman to care. He needed her to be someone. He couldn't take her ambiguity; it was driving him bonkers.

The TARDIS shook, indicating their arrival. The Doctor dashed to the door and began to take a step outside when he realized that the Earth was no longer there. He opened his mouth in astonishment. He ran back to the console and double-checked the coordinates. They were all accurate. So where was Earth?

Rosahra gaped at the wreckage and gasped as a sensation wrenched her gut. So many fixed points were ceasing to be, and both she and the Doctor were walking, talking paradoxes. It was all she could do not to be sick. She spotted something in the wreckage. A humanoid figure. A humanoid figure wearing a silver suit.

The figure barely managed a wave before Rosahra was at the console, setting the coordinate for where the figure was. The TARDIS rematerialized next to the figure.

The Doctor stuck his head out of the TARDIS. With a start, he realized that he recognized the suited figure.

The figure shakily reached an arm up to the forehead in an attempt at a salute. The figure didn't fully manage a salute. The Doctor stretched his arm out and caught the figure's leg to drag the figure inside.

"Hello again. D'you miss me" the figure asked, probably grinning beneath the suit.

"Hello, MC," Rosahra said. "Where is Earth?"

MC backed towards the door, clearly nervous. "It's, erm, a bit you know . . . ." She made her hands do the gesture that indicated an explosion. "It was an accident, I swear! I couldn't think through the pain I was feeling! I accidentally pressed the button!" MC gasped for breath, pitching forward and barely catching herself before hitting the floor.

"Come on!" the Doctor said, shooting a glare at Rosahra. "We need to get you to the infirmary."

MC shook her head, "Actually, we don't. One, I will survive because I am in this suit; technically, it's made from the Pandorica technology — doesn't let me escape by dying; instead, it's sort of locked my body in stasis but allowed me to remain conscious and able to move. Two, I think the Earth is the first priority here." She was gasping for air by the time she was done speaking. She placed her hand over the center of her chest.

Rosahra bent down to help her up, but the Doctor got there first. The Doctor, of course, didn't want one so emotionless to help this other person.

MC pushed them both away, opting to pull herself up. "I know time will die if we don't get a move on soon, so chop, chop! Let's plan!"

**I like MC, a lot. And, in case anyone was wondering, MC will be a bit caught up in the middle of Rosahra and the Doctor's feud. Poor girl. **

**So, guess what has the Osterhagen Key, Daleks, and the Trickster's Brigade!**

**And, I don't mean the Doctor Who Season Four Finale!**

**I mean the next episode!**

**Coming Soon: ****_The Missing Planet_****!**

**See you lot then!**

**~~Elf**


	8. The Missing Planet part 1

**Don't kill me, but I've had this done since Saturday. I decided that I'd force you all to wait until Friday. Well, it would have been Friday, except I'm leaving for the beach early in the morning. So I'm updating on Thursday. So, hello!**

MC stumbled, letting out a small exclamation of pain. The Doctor looked at her anxiously. Under her breath, MC mumbled, "Why the hell do my head and hands feel so hot?!"

Rosahra was apparently the one who caught this, for only her eyebrows skyrocketed. "What did you say?"

MC left leg gave out, but she pulled herself up before explaining the problem in more detail. "I was bloody fucking working on disabling the Osterhagen Key permanently, but a dalek interrupted me. I may have done my usual speech. When that, for the first time ever, failed, the dalek may have enhanced its laser and shot me. Hence the whole dying-and-locked-in-stasis deal. Well, I lasted in that room like that for ten day nine hours 57 minutes 11 seconds before I stumbled and caught myself on the detonation button. Boom goes the planet and poof! I'm left floating in space for the next ten days nine hours 57 minutes 11 seconds. Now, can we bloody fix this? I can feel time bleeding due to lack of fixed points happening."

"You what?!" the Doctor exclaimed, his eyebrows skyrocketing.

MC managed a laugh. "Which part? Eidetic memory? Blew up the Earth on accident? The Daleks? Can feel time dying? You'll have to be more specific." The Doctor glared at MC. MC raised her arms up in surrender. "Look, I was trying to prevent the Earth from going kaboom and look what the fuck happened!"

The Doctor's glare abated just a smidgen. "Language," the Doctor chastised.

"I'm in a bloody awful mood; I'll say what I like, thanks!" MC retorted, setting her hands on her hips. "You of all people should understand how I feel right now, Doctor."

The Doctor immediately shut his mouth and lowered his eyebrows, giving MC the full Oncoming Storm expression. Not that anyone could tell, MC bit her lip, forcing guilt upon herself. It was wrong to hurt people. And yet, she was finding it thrilling to see someone else hurt like that. She pushed that thought away. Rosahra's mouth fell open, and she blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. How could MC say such a thing. "MC, do you know how much that probably just hurt him."

"Oh? Did I?" MC said, probably frowning. "I don't get that stuff."

"A bit rude are you?" Rosahra laughed.

"Nope! ex-sociopath, formerly narcissistic, former sadist, and still more than slightly ODD," MC replied, shrugging. When she noticed the looks everyone else were giving her, she shrugged. "Completely normal otherwise. As normal as alien-stuck-on-Earth-entire-life gets, anyway. Other than highest alien authority permanently on Earth and highest authority on aliens stuck on Earth. Any questions?"

The Doctor and Rosahra stared at MC, dumbfounded.

"Ex; I don't go around killing people for fun anymore. The ODD is the closest to be full on. Well, that, and I'm a bit masochistic. I keep a tight reign on all the others. Well, I do kill when necessary or very angry. You can ask Jack about both of those points. Any questions, if I may reiterate my point?" MC placed her hands on her hips before breaking out coughing. She rather lost the formidable effect she was hoping for. MC sighed and grimaced.

"No. Well, none except what the daleks were doing on Earth," the Doctor said, his lower lip sticking out as he tried to answer his own question.

"Besides 'Exterminate' pyuw pyuw?" MC laughed. When she said 'pyuw', she pretended to shoot a gun. She harrumphed. "Should I paraphrase or quote exactly?"

"Paraphrase," both the Doctor and Rosahra demanded in unison. Their eyes widened as they realized that. Their eyes immediately narrowed into slits, a ferocious glare ready to terrify the other. It didn't work for either.

"Look, you two. Put whatever bloody prejudices you have against each other aside just for right now so that we can save the Earth. I don't want time to die because my friends can't keep it together. Is that understood?" MC was glaring at both of them, and they could tell, despite the visor covering her eyes.

Both of the Time Lords nodded indignantly, much in the manner of a sulky teenager who was just chagrined. MC nodded and then added, "Good. They were going to harvest the life energy of the humans so that they could open the Void and retrieve their kind imprisoned in there and get on your nerves, Doc. Most interesting evil villain speech I've run across. I, in return, gave them my stereotypical 'I've got an immortality suit' speech. So, technically, by blowing up the Earth, I did save the universe. Technicality only. Now, you two formulate a plan; the knowledge I have acquired on Earth is pathetically inapplicable. And keep it civil." MC saluted before her arm spasmed wildly, causing her to grasp it with her other arm. She hoped that it was safe to leave that pair in the same room together.

MC strolled out of the room, glancing behind her as she stepped over the doorjamb. The Doctor and Rosahra were alone together, and they were still resentful of one another.

"Time will die if we don't save the Earth and a paradox will ensue if we do. Not to mention with the former option we and all your past companions are living, breathing paradoxes," Rosahra stated, trying to keep any emotion out of her voice that she could. She was worried that panic and fear would bring back memories.

The Doctor knew that Rosahra was entirely correct. "Do you think the Trickster's Brigade has a creature that could send a consciousness back into the past self's body?" He rubbed his hand through his hair. He had resolved to leave Rosahra alone so she could recuperate or show emotion or something like that.

"They do; I ran into them once. Don't know where the brigade is now, though. You?" Rosahra replied. She could still feel animosity radiating from the Doctor in waves. She didn't especially want him near her like that.

"Nope," the Doctor reluctantly admitted. "Perhaps the Library has something on the topic." Rosahra nodded in agreement, moving towards the door.

Together, well on different sides of the hallway, they walked to the TARDIS library. The Doctor was not thrilled with the sight before him.

MC was reading the TARDIS instruction manual. She glanced up, "Oh, hello. You've got a plan, good. Care to share?"

The Doctor glared down at the manual before ripping it out of MC's hands, earning an 'Oi!' from the woman in question.

"I was reading that!" MC exclaimed after staring at the Doctor in disbelief for one full minute. "Honestly! You don't know how glad I am that I looked at every page of it already! In case you were wondering, I have a photographic memory. And I memorized the translation-y book thing as well, so I know how to fly your TARDIS, Doc."

"But —" the Doctor began to protest, pouting slightly.

"No buts. And I already know for a fact that you fly her incorrectly," MC snapped, standing up. "So what was the plan? I didn't actually hear it. So enlighten me."

"We're going to all go to the Trickster's Brigade and get bitten by whatever allows our current minds to go into our ast bodies," Rosahra said before the Doctor could even open his mouth to get in a word.

"Yeah," the Doctor said when Rosahra was finished. Rosahra shot him a glare.

"And you don't know where this Trickster's Brigade is, do you?" MC guessed, knowing she was right. MC shook her head. "Go find the bloody coordinates. Go on! Scat! I'll be waiting in the console room!"

MC strode out the door and walked down the hall to the console room, true to her word. The Doctor quickly found the coordinates on his own, seeing as he wouldn't let Rosahra near the bookshelves. Rosahra ended up joining MC in the console room, sulking.

Rosahra perched herself a meter away from MC on the console. She wanted to vent about her troubles to MC, but they didn't really know much about each other. Not really. She knew she'd probably be venting to MC by the end of whatever happened with this adventure.

The Doctor walked into the console room and ran to the console, which he danced around, pressing buttons and pulling levers as he went. MC thought back to what she had read and pushed two blue buttons.

The Doctor stared at her grumpily. "What did you do?"

"You're not supposed to leave the parking brake on," MC said, rolling her eyes.

"What parking brake?" the Doctor asked, frowning in confusion. "There are no parking brakes on the TARDIS!"

"These are just blue, I don't know, boring-ers! They are actually parking brakes. And there is a good chance we've landed," MC sniffed in reply.

"How can we have landed already?" the Doctor exclaimed, frowning. Rosahra giggled, and MC burst out laughing hysterically.

"The parking brake is off. The TARDIS isn't supposed to make that sound, Doc," MC managed to say through her giggles. She stepped away from the console and literally collapsed onto the Captain's chair before hacking violently. "Gak! Why did that bloody dalek have to bloody shoot me with an advanced fucking laser?!"

The Doctor stared at her incredulously. "It's a dalek; what did you expect?" the Doctor managed to retort.

"I did manage to outreason it. I convinced it not to kill me," MC remarked, propping her feet up on the console. "Wish I had thought to cover all of my bases, you know?" She sighed and rubbed the mask over her face where her forehead was covered.

"Yeah," Rosahra agreed, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. The Doctor stared at her for a second. MC coughed and retracted her legs so that she was curled up in a ball.

"We have to go outside, MC," Rosahra said, helping the woman to her feet. MC nodded, clearly in pain. "The pain is getting worse, isn't it?" MC nodded wordlessly.

At that, the Doctor stared at MC in concern. He wished she'd take the suit off so he could see her injuries. But she was also claiming that the suit was the only thing keeping her alive. Asking her to take it off would be like asking her to die. He couldn't do that to her.

Both Rosahra and the Doctor helped MC out the doors. MC gasped for breath.

Outside the TARDIS was what seemed to be an endless plateau of dust. "Which creature do I want to bite me?" MC asked, coughing slightly.

"The spider-esque ones," Rosahra supplied, glancing around her.

"The term is spidery, Rosahra," the Doctor corrected, his voice almost condescending.

MC nodded, but it was impossible to tell to whom the nod was a reply. She toppled forward, freeing herself from the two Time Lords. She managed to regain her footing and stumbled slightly as she walked, but still, she managed.

Both Time Lords managed to take the hint that MC wanted to be alone when she was bitten by the creature. Rosahra and the Doctor lagged behind.

MC pulled off the glove of her immortality suit. From the outside, the suit didn't look to be segmented. It appeared to one long body suit with a separate helmet. But it wasn't, and that allowed MC to just take off the glove.

MC stared down at her hand in complete and utter shock. Her hand was glowing a brilliant gold color, the light pooling on all sides of it. MC felt the urge to take her other glove and her helmet. MC fought the urge, but it was almost too strong. But there was more than just that, MC realized after a moment. She felt the need to stretch her arms and throw back her head. But what for? Why did she want that? Somewhere inside of her, she knew the golden light would explode from her. But why? For what purpose? She would explode from it! How could she survive that?!

Before she could follow the urge, she leaned down and placed her hand next to the spidery creature. The creature did not hesitate to bite her.

Suddenly, MC's surroundings changed. She was in a lab off in Egypt. Well, more makeshift lab. She was in a small-ish room with her bag and a laptop, and this was when she was about to hack into the Osterhagen Key program.

She set the laptop aside. Only thirty one minutes twenty four seconds until the Daleks came.

Back with the Trickster's Brigade, Rosahra and the Doctor also allowed themselves to be bitten. They were back in the TARDIS before they had found MC. The Doctor quickly piloted the TARDIS to the dalek ship.

"Allons-y!" he exclaimed, opening the TARDIS doors.

**Oh, so I have the next chapter written. If I receive eight reviews for this chapter, I will post it early. **

**I'm curious to see what theories you have concerning MC. **

**In other news, school is out! Also, my birthday is in nine days! Brilliant! We were planning to make a TARDIS cake with time vortex cupcakes. We couldn't get the TARDIS blue dark enough. Then, of course, the top layer started collapsing in on itself. So, to remedy that, we put a sugar sheet around it. That just was ugly, and the disturbingly blue frosting showed through. Then my mum tried to make it have a slanted roof. That just looked like there was a random bulge. Basically, epic fail; it looked a bit like the Trenzalore TARDIS. Then I stabbed my fork all the way to the bottom of the cake. Out first few time vortex cupcakes had alarmingly vivid colors (possibly because I tried to make them look like the actual time vortexes). After we gave up with that, the project went a lot better! =D**

**Oh, and I would also like prompts either set in this universe or just plain Doctor Who. I'd prefer the prompts to be for one-shots or two-three chapter stuffs. =D**

**Many thanks!**

**~~Elf**


	9. The Missing Planet part 2

**So, this is where it gets interesting. =D I have had this written for about a week, so don't kill me. Also, I am going to complain about the lack of reviews. I would have posted early if I'd gotten eight. Seriously, a few more and I would have posted. Hmmph. See if I post again. I will; no worries there. Well, if no one actually wants to read this story, I'll stop this story. Should I stop?**

MC was counting down until the daleks arrived. She knew she'd have to do better than she did last time. She couldn't be tortured like that. Again. She didn't want to be useless. She was usually the least useless person she knew. But then, she had never met the daleks before. This time, she would definitely make a better speech.

MC's phone rang. MC leapt to her feet in surprise. She fumbled with her bag for a second before successfully extracting her phone. She stared at it for a second before answering it.

"Hello, now who the bloody hell is this?" MC snapped moodily. No one had called her last time, and she was not happy about this minute change. She had been expecting that everything would remain the same except for the fact of the her not starting the Osterhagen if there were changes such as this, she might still end up almost dying like last time.

"Hello to you too," the voice on the other end drawled sarcastically.

"Ah," MC replied, rolling her eyes. "Harkness." MC understood that the Doctor or Rosahra had probably called him so that he could help. INtentions be damned, she thought irritably. She wanted to do this, to fix this disaster, all by herself without anyone's help.

"I'll be there in an hour," Jack informed her over the phone. MC resisted the urge to throw the phone against the wall, even though she would find that cause to grin. But she restrained herself, knowing that she was both talking to a friend and that the phone might come in handy at some point in the future.

"Don't be. Go back, would you? Sort of my mess to clean up. No need for you to be involved in it," MC snapped moodily.

"Something on your nerves, then? You certainly aren't happy," Jack commented dryly, pointing out the painfully obvious.

"Yep. Call it I was just about to be permanently dying via dalek laser. I blew up the Earth. Ran into the Doctor and Rosahra. And got sent into my past body which hasn't yet blown up the Earth," MC hissed, her teeth clenched. "So, yeah. Stressful couple weeks, alright?"

When there was no audible response, MC assumed that Jack had nodded silently. Which was just as well; she didn't particularly want to hear what he had to say. Even so, she kept her phone at her ear, all though the inclination to remove the phone from beside her ear was still impeccably strong.

Finally, Jack spoke. "I want to help."

MC banged her head back against the wall, sighing mightily. She cocked an eyebrow. "Fat chance; you don't get to help, so suck it!" MC rubbed the back of her neck through the suit.

"Not a chance," Jack retorted petulantly. If he had been the Doctor, he'd have been pouting mightily. Of course, he wasn't, so instead, his tone made it clear that was the end of the discussion. But, MC being MC, refused to take that answer.

"Look, I don't want anyone bloody endangered because of my little problem!" MC snapped angrily, taking a deep breath, trying to pull herself together to make a half-decent argument.

"Can't die," Jack pointed out sagely, obviously smug that MC's only argument was kind of a moot point.

MC rolled her eyes. "They're planning on taking people's life energy. Even you can't come back if they do that, so don't start," MC growled. She was standing up. "Look, go away. I have eighteen minutes forty-four seconds until the daleks come. So I just bloody need time to think!"

"MC, Ria, I am coming whether you like it or not," Jack retorted. He knew he'd won as soon as he said her older nickname. MC did not like people calling her Ria. She would probably complain about him calling her that as opposed to fighting the argument.

"Don't call me Ria. The name is MC and don't forget it," MC mumble, knowing she'd lost the argument.

"MC isn't your name either," Jack retorted. MC held her phone away from her ear, glowering mutinously at it.

When MC deigned to respond, she said, "Maybe not, but I find it to be who I am. And you have ten minutes to get here, or I'll just have to perform my plan without your aid, so hurry up if you're so bloody keen on helping out!"

"Will do, MC!" Jack replied, hanging up his phone. MC was almost positive that he had saluted.

On the dalek ship, the Doctor and Rosahra stepped out of the TARDIS, instinctively flinching at the sight before their eyes. Daleks surrounded the TARDIS. Without even thinking about it, the Doctor and Rosahra backed up against the TARDIS doors, the Doctor clandestinely slipping his hand behind his back to lock the door. Rosahra noticed but wisely decided not to draw the daleks' attention to that action.

"YOU WILL STEP AWAY FROM THE TARDIS," one dalek screeched in its metallic voice. With an audible sigh, Rosahra obeyed the dalek's command. The Doctor hastily followed, making sure to hide his TARDIS key.

The daleks, predictably enough, led them to the central room of the ship. Surrounded by all the other daleks was a red dalek, a bit larger than the rest. Clearly, this was the commander of the ship, the highest dalek authority.

Rosahra noticed a gap between two of the daleks. The daleks on either side of the gap were focused on the main dalek. Taking her chances, Rosahra slipped between the two daleks.

The Doctor, however, was forced to listen to the supreme dalek's evil villain speech. Well, he was forced to hear it only after he asked what they were doing, despite having already heard from MC.

The speech went accordingly.

"THE DOCTOR WILL WATCH AS WE HARVEST THE LIFE FORCE OF THE SPECIES HE LOVES SO MUCH. WE WILL USE IT TO OPEN THE VOID, FREEING THE REST OF THE DALEKS AND TRAPPING THE HUMAN ESSENCE WITHIN. THEN THE DOCTOR WILL BE EXTERMINATED WHILE IN SUCH GREAT PAIN."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, despite the thoroughly Oncoming Storm look on his face. "I will stop you if you don't stop," he vowed, glaring at the daleks.

"YOU ARE UNARMED," the supreme dalek screeched. If the dalek had been able to have an emotion other than hate, the tone of its voice could have been interpreted as glee.

"Oh, yes," the Doctor said, noting how this conversation was echoing that which had happened right before he had lost Rose.

"THEN YOU HAVE NO MEANS OF RESISTANCE," the dalek pointed out.

The Doctor smirked, letting out a bark of laughter. "Oh, ho, ho, I always have a means of resistance."

"EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!" the dalek demanded.

"I have allies," the Doctor explained, his voice calm.

"AND WHERE ARE THEY?!" the dalek demanded.

"Don't know, don't know, don't know," the Doctor said, listing off enough 'don't know's to cover Rosahra, Jack, and MC.

"WHO ARE THEY?!" the dalek screamed, not scaring the Doctor.

"Your doom," the Doctor smirked, rubbing the back of his neck. He was starting to worry that they wouldn't help.

After Rosahra had slipped away from the daleks, Rosahra slinked from shadow to shadow until she reached the ship's central control room. When she arrived, she had to stand stalk still; there were five daleks in the room. Rosahra's heartsbeats quickened. She had to do something. And quickly, at that.

She furtively inched along the back of the room before thinking better of it. She glanced around and saw a miniscule pebble on the floor and picked it up, rubbing it between her hands.

Taking a deep breath, Rosahra tossed the small stone down the hall, where it clattered, the sound echoing back up to the control room and in the opposite direction as well.

All five daleks swiveled their heads, if they could even be called that, towards the disturbance. Rosahra exhaled, relief flooding through her veins. She inched towards the controls, listening subconsciously to make sure that no daleks were approaching her from behind.

Rosahra evaluated what the controls did. Quickly slamming her hands on a couple of buttons and spinning a couple of dials, she grinned. She loved this air of danger and power.

Caught up in her glee, Rosahra failed to hear the dalek coming up behind her until it spoke. "IDENTIFY YOURSELF!"

Rosahra jumped, spinning around and backing herself against the controls. "Rosahra," she spat, staring at the dalek's eyestalk disdainfully. She didn't like her name. Given the time, she'd come up with a new name and a signature outfit. However, as of yet, she had been unable to catch a break. She and the Doctor still hadn't had enough time to burn the Master's body. They really, really needed to get on with that one.

"YOU ARE A TIME LADY," the dalek deduced. Rosahra nodded, not sure of what else to do. "YOU WILL BE IMPRISONED IN THE ROOM NEXT TO THE DOCTOR."

"Brilliant!" Rosahra growled sarcastically, attempting to suppress the shiver trying to worm its way down her spine. She didn't succeed.

Fortunately for her, the dalek took no notice. Rosahra quietly followed the dalek to a cell, trying not to tremble. ONce again, she failed in her endeavor.

Back on Earth, MC was anticipating both the arrival of the daleks and Jack. She was not entirely sure which of the two she would rather have come first. That should have been Jack, but she did not particularly want to talk with him. Or see him, for that matter. She knew that was not the best attitude to have, but she had it nonetheless.

There was a bang outside her makeshift lab. MC leapt to her feet, adopting a fighting stance. A familiar face appeared in the doorway.

"Look who's here," MC snapped, rolling her eyes. "Jack bloody Harkness! I'm so not pleased to see you." She stretched her hand out to shake Jack's hand.

"I'm pleased to see you," Jack replied, winking at MC, who rolled her eyes. He shook MC's hand, grinning. MC, though he couldn't see her face, Jack suspected, was smiling back at him. Or, at least, that's what he was hoping.

"There's a time and place, Harkness, and I'm afraid that we both may find that now is neither. Quite unfortunately too," MC replied, abruptly shifting in mood and position. She motioned for Jack to follow her to her laptop. "I've created a software on this laptop and I have the remote operating system, which has isomorphic controls. I'm going to operate it from the dalek ship. I need you here to protect the actual program."

"What does the program actually do?" Jack questioned. "You had better not be planning on detonating a bomb on that ship.

"Of course I'm not!" MC exclaimed indignantly. "I am planning on amplifying any programs that have been confirmed as made by Rosahra or the Doctor. Also, it will identify the dalek biosignature and increase the electricity and send it only to where it detects the dalek biosignature."

"That might actually work," Jack said, feigning surprise.

MC assumed that the surprise was genuine. "You've known me for twenty-two years and still doubt me?"

"No, I was being mildly sarcastic," Jack corrected MC. MC gave Jack a half-hearted glare.

There was the telltale sound of a dalek approaching. Jack blanched and pulled out a dalek gun. He shot the dalek. He nodded at MC.

After an extended period of button pressing, MC managed to transmit a video message.

"Daleks!" she exclaimed, glaring at the recording. "Hello there!"

"IDENTIFY YOURSELF!" the supreme dalek commanded in its metallic tones.

MC clucked her tongue against her teeth. "Shame on you! You didn't say hello!"

"IDENTIFY YOURSELF!" the dalek reiterated.

It was obvious that MC was rolling her eyes. "Well, I have more than one different name, but typically, I go by MC."

"HOW ARE YOU CONTACTING OUR SHIP?! EARTH DOES NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY TECHNOLOGY!" the supreme dalek exclaimed.

"I'm not human, I deal with aliens as a hobby and living, and I'm a genius. I have the technology," MC sniffed haughtily, folding her arms across her chest.

"FROM WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR TECHNOLOGY?!" the dalek demanded, evaluating where needed to be destroyed next.

"Here and there. Not sure, to be honest. And, I would like to propose an alliance. I'm a genius, and right now, the world is on red alert. If I don't help you, the people who have guns to use against you will do just that. I can fix that," MC said, her voice uncharacteristically level, a dull evenness that scared Jack to no end. She had been like that the first couple times that he had met her. Hell, the first time he had met her, she had killed him. But Jack understood that she was trying to have the daleks transport her up and give her access to the controls as opposed to having to force her way up there and destroy them.

"WE WILL CONSIDER THIS. YOU WILL COME ABOARD," the dalek declared. MC grinned broadly, fingering her remote.

Surely enough, a blueish light enveloped MC, causing her to fade out of existence. She appeared in what appeared to be a holding cell next to the Doctor, who was apparently also in a holding cell. The holding cell was a force field that appeared to be ordinary light until it was touched and turned a bluish hue.

"I take it 'we will consider this; meant 'we will decline this magnificent offer, MC,'" MC remarked sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she said it. "And before you even bloody begin to start, I already know what your evil villain plan is, so you don't actually need to tell me."

"YOU WILL EXPLAIN," the dalek she had been video chatting with ordered.

"Don't feel like it," MC griped, stretching exaggeratedly, pretending that she was too tired to be bothered. Or just didn't feel like being bothered. It was probably the latter of the two. "And, for future-which-you-won't-get-anyway notice, you might want to check the backgrounds of the people you let into your spaceship. Go on, check the UNIT and Torchwood records of me." MC grimaced, raising an eyebrow. Granted, no one except she herself knew that she was actually doing that.

The daleks paused for a moment, as if doing just what she suggested. The daleks scooched backwards a decimeter.

**So, I hope that was interesting. **

**Also, any guesses on why the daleks moved backwards. No, I'm not going to tell you why. I just want to hear your theories. **

**BTW, I'm starting a one-shot about MC's past. I won't post it for a while though.**

**~~Elf**


	10. The Missing Planet part 3

**So, I said I'd update on Fridays, right? See, I realized that I didn't say how many times I'd update on Friday. So, I am posting multiple times. I've had this finished since Tuesday. =D**

A dalek walked Rosahra into the room containing both MC and the Doctor. MC stared at Rosahra for a second, narrowing her eyes beneath her helmet. MC nodded, the movement almost imperceptible. MC raised her arm in a salute.

Rosahra grimaced, trying to put a happy face on her discomfort.

The Doctor, forgetting Rosahra's fear of capture, decided to tease her. "Got yourself caught?" the Doctor asked nonchalantly.

Rosahra blanched visibly, her breath quickening, her hearts thumping more wildly. Her eyes darted around the room, searching in vain for an escape root.

The Doctor wanted to beat himself on the forehead. He had forgotten that this Time Lady had problems with prison. Serious problems. Majorly serious problems. His goal was just to tease, or perhaps get a playful response. He didn't want to hurt her. He did want proof that she could feel guilt and remorse. He didn't know what to do with her until she proved that she could.

Rosahra was also lost deep in thought. Mostly, she was, unfortunately, enraptured in memories of prison. She was almost paralyzed with mental agony. She was trying not to break down. As it was, she could barely deal with the pain she was letting through. And that was hardly scratching the surface of the pain she had felt. She couldn't deal with it all alone. But how could she force such pain on anyone?

In comparison, MC's thoughts were a whole lot less angst-y. She was plotting out the finer details of her plan. Well, that and looking between the two Time Lords, raising an eyebrow beneath her helmet. To be perfectly honest, she thought they were both thick-headed idiots, but she was not going to share that with them.

Rosahra was tossed into a cell like MC's and the Doctor's. A tear managed to trickle down her cheek. She rubbed at it viciously, as if it were a malevolent deity that needed ousting.

MC noticed but didn't comment. Well, she did comment in the form of mouthing a silent curse at the Doctor, though he couldn't see it due to her helmet, and scowling as hard as she could at the same offending personage.

The Doctor looked at Rosahra in concern. MC gave him a tight smile. Again, the Doctor couldn't tell. MC was not actually a huge fan of wearing her suit. But when she was not going to have the name 'MC' actually connected to a face. If she did, her family would no longer be safe and she would be in a hell of a lot more danger. Basically, she didn't want people to know who MC actually was. That was a major no-no.

Rosahra looked up at the Doctor. Cautiously, she queried, "As a matter of interest, do you have a plan?" The Doctor shook his head sadly. He did not like not having a plan.

MC looked over at Rosahra happily. "Don't worry, 'Sahra! I've got a plan, and it's bloody brilliant."

The Doctor glanced over at MC in interest. "And your plan is?" He had a dreadfully confused look on his face, the type that meant he was not in charge and didn't like it one it but wanted to know what was happening.

MC emitted a bark of laughter before shaking her head slowly. "Spoilers."

The Doctor looked confused for a second. "What?"

MC shrugged, "IT'd be no fun if everyone knew my plan. And, Doc, you may have noticed we're surrounded by daleks. Can't very well let them know my ingenious plan here, now can I?"

Rosahra grinned. The Doctor also managed a smile and shrugged his shoulders. MC turned around to face the daleks, who were still standing a bit away from her. "And, by the way, daleks, I appreciate your backing up; I needed the personal space." The Doctor stared at her incredulously. MC, once again, shrugged nonchalantly. Then, warily, MC added, "And, I wasn't kidding when I said you shouldn't have let me up here."

Out of a previously hidden pocket, Mc pulled out what appeared to be a handgun. The Doctor stared at it in shock,as if it were the epitome of evil. Rosahra regarded it in much the same manner.

MC coughed to disguise her laughter. She aimed it at the top of her cell. She pulled the trigger. And a flare shot up towards the controls for her cell.

The Doctor's eyebrows skyrocketed comically when he realized that it was a flare gun, and MC had just melted the controls to her cell.

The light containing MC flickered out of existence. MC straightened her back. "Now that we are clear that you can't keep me prisoner, I'd appreciate it if you would release the Doc and Rosahra."

The daleks did not obey. MC shook her head at them. A dalek turned back towards her.

MC stared irritably at it, clearly not finding it a serious threat. She never had really encountered one of those before. They may have been dangerous to others, but she was good enough that none of them were in the least bit dangerous to her. She didn't register that the dalek posed a serious threat.

Then came the dalek's low-pitched screech. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

MC stared at the dalek in alarm, but it was far too late. The dalek's laser hit her suit and bounced off it back at the dalek in question.

The only thing the dalek had posed a serious threat to was keeping the daleks naive of the fact she had an immortality suit.

The dalek screamed as it was hit by its own laser. MC brushed down her immortality suit. "Well, that was not actually planned. So, yeah, I have an immortality suit. Pandorica suit, if we're being technical."

A different dalek shot at her, its ray slightly different. MC had the presence of mind to duck; well, more like flatten herself on the floor as the laser whooshed overhead. MC managed to extract another gun from her suit, despite lying prostrate on the floor.

Rosahra shot MC a look of perplexion and the Doctor shot one of shock. MC did her best to shrug. She completely failed due to being on the ground. MC fired her new weapon at the offending pepperpot-oid. Said pepperpot-oid did not survive. In fact, what could be called its head exploded.

A feral grin lit MC's face beneath her mask. MC quickly rolled to her feet only to discover that she had dropped her flare gun. She stooped down to pick it up when she realized something was direly wrong.

"That dalek isn't dead," she murmured, staring at it. She picked up her flare gun and easily freed both the Doctor and Rosahra, although she did hesitate on freeing the former. "That means that whatever is going on has already started!"

"They were pulling life energy from humans!" the Doctor corrected. "But how can

you tell that the dalek isn't dead? I can only tell because the creature inside blinked, but how could you tell? You weren't looking at its eyes!"

MC sighed. "Dead daleks probably have no way of breathing, I would presume, Doc!" She ran off in the first direction she thought to go, and MC being MC, had also figured that that was the way to the central control room.

Rosahra stared at her for a second. "The power will go off any second now."

MC groaned. "And that is bad! Bloody, bloody, bloody not good! Blimey! I haven't been this un-bored in ages!" She continued her sprint down the corridor.

"Why is that bad?" Rosahra asked, scowling. "It will take down whatever program they have!"

MC looked back at her, continuing her jog. "Have you forgotten where we are?! We're in a spaceship orbiting Earth! We'll crash if the power goes down! And besides that! I have a device that needs the electromagnetic pulses! And if that isn't enough, it magnifies all of your programs! The entire Earth might lose power! I was hoping you'd have thought of something that wouldn't get everyone killed!"

Rosahra opened her mouth to protest before deciding better of it.

"To be honest, I really would not have thought of it," the Doctor mumbled.

MC mumbled to herself for a few seconds. She hissed a few curses and plopped herself down on the floor. She worked on her device for about one minute before she stood back up and pressed the button.

Immediately, there ears were overpowered by an intolerably loud screeching sound. Despite the fact that they'd covered their ears, their ears were ringing after the screeching stopped.

MC glanced at Rosahra. "How long until we lose all power?"

"Less than a minute," Rosahra replied.

MC spat a string of profanity that would have made a sailor proud. "Well, I've got nothing. Well, we should probably wait for the power to go off or stop it from going off. Either could work, I suppose."

"We wait for the program to work and tow the useless ship back to space," the Doctor suggested.

"And, in the meantime, get back to the TARDIS and avoid the daleks," Rosahra said, glancing between the Doctor and MC.

A dalek weakly approached. Normally, this would have been impossible; the daleks had all been killed. However, the program was still active and there were human prisoners having their life energy extracted. Much longer, and these daleks would be full strength. Not only that, but the void would open up.

The dalek shot a laser at MC. The laser was not the regular laser. No, it was the type that had shot her before. The type that had almost caused her death. MC seemed unaware.

The Doctor lunged in the way. He screamed, collapsing. Rosahra caught him before he hit the ground.

Rosahra took a deep breath and let a small bit of regenerative energy flow over the Doctor. The Doctor stared at her for a moment, and Rosahra returned the stare. The Doctor managed only a grimace at her while he was healing, and Rosahra's face fell slightly, but she plastered a smile on her face nonetheless. The Doctor didn't seem to register its falseness.

Meanwhile, MC was clutching her head. Seeing the regenerative energy transfer had awaked a message in her mind. She knew the message was friendly — it was information from her future self. But she still found the new stuff floating around in her head slightly disconcerting.

Rosahra and the Doctor headed back to the TARDIS as the power failed. MC dashed towards the central control room.

What met her there was not what she had hoped. All the daleks' prisoners were dead, the life energy sucked right out of them. The looked like dried out huskes, their skin stretched over there faces, dried and dusty. MC cursed, but her eyes lit up slightly at the sight of the dead bodies. To some extent, she did enjoy seeing the dead bodies, but she didn't particularly wish to see them at this particular moment, not now after so long.

MC abruptly spun on her heel and darted back toward the TARDIS, or the direction she assumed it was in. She stumbled twice, both from the instability of the ship's now deteriorating orbit.

When she finally reached the spot, the TARDIS was gone. MC raced to a window, alarmed. The TARDIS was pulling the dalek spaceship out of the Earth's orbit. MC sighed in relief, but still feared that they would not come back or her. She held her breath, leaning against the cool glass.

With her new knowledge, she understood that it was probably a bad idea to travel with them. Even still, she didn't want them to have just abandoned her. With her newfound knowledge, she would also be even more hurt by that than she would have been otherwise.

The TARDIS wheezed back into existence next to her, the dalek ship no longer where it could hurt anyone. The Doctor opened the door for MC.

MC stepped in hesitantly before stating coolly, "Take me home. Now."

**Oh, so at my party for my birthday (which is tomorrow), my friends and I had a DW marathon. Amby and I watched The Doctor's Wife, the Unearthly Child, and started the Eighth Doctor movie before everyone else arrived. Then we watched Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, The Runaway Bride, Smith and Jones, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. After my other friends left, Reanna and I watched the Shakespeare Code and Gridlock. Oddly enough, in Smith and Jones, the only thing that struck Reanna as unnatural was the fact that the exit signs were green. So, in Disney, apparently Amby saw a green exit sign so she took a picture of it and sent it to us. =D**

**Also, at the beach, we saw a miniature red army march up the beach. In the distance, we saw a blue army. They met a little ways from our hotel and fought. Red won. The winner apparently talked to the crowd of spectators. To be honest, it was hilarious.**

**So, actually about the story, don't kill me for that last bit. *MC is coming with them*! **

**Guess who's coming next chapter!**

**Please review. Please?**

**It makes me happy and smile like an idiot. It also reassures me that this idea isn't stupid and I shouldn't just scrap it. **

**So, please review.**

**And my apologies for the humongous author's not.**

**~~Elf **


	11. Interlude: Take Me Back!

**And look! Another one! And I've had it completed since Tuesday!**

"What?" the Doctor exclaimed, surprised. He had genuinely thought that this girl was going to travel with him and Rosahra. Why would she change her mind so suddenly? It didn't really seem like her, from what he'd seen so far.

MC crossed her arms, stepping into the TARDIS. "I have to go home."

Rosahra frowned. "Why?" She was thinking almost the exact same thing as the Doctor was.

"Stuff. Reasons. Thing have to be done," MC replied vaguely. She flinched at her own words. Could she have made it any more blatantly obvious that she was lying? If they knew her real reason, she might not actually exist and/or the whole of time might have issues. Issues. One word for being destroyed. MC wished desperately that she could see her own timelines just to see if she could travel with the two Time Lords. Hell, she wanted to, but time's safety wasn't something that could be pushed off as the opportunity cost.

"What things?" Rosahra asked, MC's mysteriousness peaking her interest.

"Just you know. . . stuff," MC mumbled, waving her hand. "Still need to take the Osterhagen Key. Still need to repair my relations with my family. I really don't want to know what will happen if I don't. . . ." She rubbed her cheek, or rather, the helmet over her cheek. "Haven't been on my adopted sister's or adopted mum's good side for years. Correction, Mum never liked me. Sis just doesn't like me disappearing all the time."

"Mum, well, my human mum, did not like me travelling with the Doctor," Rosahra offered, shrugging slightly.

"No one likes me disappearing for months on end without any notice," MC snapped back.

"What do you do that for?" the Doctor exclaimed, clearly surprised.

"Travelling; I get bored. I'm telling you, the number of death certificates I've had to invalidate because I was assumed dead!"

"Why haven't you bothered to call your family?" Rosahra asked, horrified at the other woman's negligence.

"UNIT, Torchwood One, and the police have confiscated the phone more than I care to to count. And, they can track me using it. I like my laptop better," MC sniffed. "Which reminds me, we need to get my stuff from Egypt."

"What's it doing there?" the Doctor asked, frowning. "I thought you were British!"

"I am, and I haven't been back to England in two years. I miss Chiswick!" MC exclaimed. Her tone could almost been described as 'wistful' or 'nostalgic'.

"I met someone who lived in Chiswick right after I lost Rose. . .ahra," the Doctor mumbled.

Rosahra raised her eyebrows. "So Martha wasn't the first to travel with you after I got stuck?" Rosahra tried desperately not to sound hurt. Oddly enough, it worked out quite well.

"No, she refused to travel with me. Said I scared her. She was going to walk the world," the Doctor replied, pouting slightly.

MC's eyes widened. If one could have seen them, he or she might have found it most comical. "I think that I know exactly whom you speak of."

The Doctor's eyebrows shot up, causing both MC and Rosahra to laugh. "And of whom are you thinking?"

"Just to make sure we're on the same page, we'd be talking about someone with one hell of a slap, a loudmouth, and a tendency to miss the big picture?" MC laughed, rubbing her forehead.

"Erm, yeah. . . ."the Doctor said, surprised that Donna could be recognized from why she hadn't traveled with him.

"Of course. I definitely know her then," MC said, rolling her eyes. "Donna Noble." A grin lit up her face.

"Yep," the Doctor sputtered, still shocked that MC could tell so easily. "How could you tell?"

"Sounds like Donna," MC responded offhandedly. "Now I need to pick up my stuff from Egypt. I'll punch in the coordinates all by myself, thanks." MC strode over to the console and punched in the coordinates.

Oddly enough, the TARDIS didn't shake. Well, maybe because MC didn't leave the parking brakes on. MC poked her head out the doors to see Jack staring at her.

Jack calmly handed her back her laptop. MC ducked into the TARDIS before Jack could say anything.

"Ria!" Jack shouted at the TARDIS.

Groaning, MC opened the doors. "What is it, Jack? I'm heading back to Chiswick so this had better be bloody well important!" MC was clearly not happy, though it was not Jack's fault.

"Donna and Sylvia will kill you! And UNIT!" Jack taunted her.

"Who said anything about talking to them?" MC retorted petulantly. She folded her arms across her chest.

"Why else are you going there then?" Jack reasoned, bored. He knew that she couldn't outargue him on this one.

"Come on, MC!" the Doctor impatiently shouted from the TARDIS.

MC nodded to Jack and slipped inside the TARDIS without a proper goodbye. She fingered her bag.

Glancing around the console room, MC spotted the captain's chair. She scurried over to it and sat down, stretching out her legs. She unzipped her bag and extricated her laptop. Without even a glance at the the others, she started to work disabling the Osterhagen Key. As she worked, she was so focused that she didn't even register that the Doctor had moved them to the time vortex.

When she finally looked up from her work, she found that there was something wrong. There was a blue light in the middle of the console room. Well, right next to the console just to MC's left,

Rosahra's mouth had fallen open. People weren't supposed to be able to do that! It shouldn't have been able to happen. Rosahra didn't like this one bit. This was not possible.

At long last, the apparition fully materialized.

"Donna?!" the Doctor exclaimed, thoroughly startled to see the woman again. Especially the woman in yet another wedding dress.

But it was not the Doctor that Donna was looking at. It was MC. "Ria Noble," she bellowed threateningly, "How the hell are you still alive."

MC found herself only able to manage two words as she slowly backed away from Donna as if she were a poisonous viper. The words were 'ah' and 'shit'.

**So, yeah! Coming up shortly is 'The Runaway Bride Mark Two part 1'! **

**Now, I have to come up with the plot for that one. . . . Brilliant!**

**Did I mention that I'm taking prompts? And reviews, for that matter?**

**Oh, I would appreciate ideas on villains. . . . I may have an idea, I may not. Basically, I'm taking villain requests!**

**Having way too much time on my hands. . . **

**~~Elf**


	12. The Runaway Bride Mark Two part 1

**So, isn't this a big chapter! I've had it written since Tuesday. **

"Faked my death," MC mumbled, fidgeting nervously. She wasn't quite sure what she could say that wouldn't enrage Donna. MC never had anyone say no to her. But there was one thing she was terrified of. Two things, actually. Donna Noble and Sylvia Noble.

"Sorry, what was that?" Donna demanded, her hands on her hips.

MC flinched. MC growled her response his time, her voice low and sad, lacking its usual fire. "I faked my own death, Donna." MC looked up at Donna slowly, looking for any indication of forgiveness.

Donna offered none. "Why didn't you tell me you were alive?!"

MC sighed. "I couldn't, even if I had wanted to! Now, can we talk about it later? Your psychic message probably won't last much longer. How long have we got, Doc, Sahra?"

"Two minutes," the Doctor supplied, glancing at the TARDIS console.

MC stared at Donna, her eyes narrowing. "I know that face. What's wrong? Hold on, the dress? What's it for? Well, who's the man?"

"Shaun Temple," Donna replied giddily. Then, remembering the actual situation, added, "But something's wrong."

MC rolled her eyes, though nobody could tell. When she spoke, her tone was that which one uses when speaking to a child. "Yes, we figured that out ourselves, thanks. Now, what was the actual problem?"

"The mirror. There's something in the mirror," Donna replied slowly, thinking. "It was dark, with glowing yellow eyes, shaggy fur, and horns. Almost like the devil."

MC stared at Donna, her eyebrows raised beneath her helmet. Rosahra's eyebrows did the exact same thing, except people were actually able to see her face. The Doctor shook his head. "It wasn't the devil, Donna."

"Can you please help me?" Donna asked irritably, glaring at the three time-travellers because they didn't seem to be getting the point.

"You don't even have to ask, Donna. I would always help my sister," MC stated, her voice even.

The Doctor and Rosahra were both stunned by the shift in MC's attitude. She wasn't rude, fierce, and cocky the way she had been when Donna wasn't there. Now, she was calm, still fierce, and protective. And maybe a bit condescending.

Donna snorted. "And where were you at my last wedding during Christmas, 2007?!" Donna demanded.

"Denmark, protecting you and our family," MC said coolly, ignoring the hurt and anger bubbling up inside of her like water in a cauldron.

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Donna demanded. "You can't make us all believe that you're dead. It's not right!"

MC shook her head, "I will tell you later when I have more than ten seconds." With that, MC turned back to the TARDIS console and took a deep breath.

"You will help me though, right?" Donna asked the Doctor nervously. The Doctor nodded, but before he could get any words out of his gob, Donna disappeared in another burst of blue brightness.

MC exhaled, unaware that she had, in fact, been holding her breath in the first place. The Doctor looked over at MC. "Ria Noble?"

"Sort of, but only to Donna, Mum, Dad, and Gramps. I really do prefer MC; it's who I am when I'm not home. More of the time, I'm MC."

"Why haven't you told them that?" Rosahra asked, concerned about what would happen at Donna's wedding.

MC shrugged, doubling over in laughter. "That would go over oh-so-well! By the way, Mum, you know how I said I was an alien a while back? Well, it's true! That's why I haven't aged in nineteen years! Oh, and by the way, I fight aliens for a living. And you know how I faked my own death? Well, that was to keep a psychopath from tracking me down. Why didn't I cal? He could trace me or you lot! Yes, that would go over uber well."

Both Rosahra and the Doctor laughed hysterically at MC's failed attempt at a falsetto voice. Which was, to be honest, horrendous.

Finally, Rosahra managed to recover from the bout of laughter. "So, do you know where you're from?"

MC thought for a second before shaking her head. "Nope. Lived on Earth my entire life!" MC smiled slightly. Rosahra looked aghast.

"You never knew your parents?!" the Doctor exclaimed, rounding on MC and Rosahra.

"We've met before, me and them," MC said. "They don't know though." MC sighed heavily before motioning to the door. "Well, aren't you two going to get dressed for Donna's wedding? She won't appreciate you two arriving in that."

"What about you?" the Doctor asked.

"She can live through it. Anyway, the suit looks rather nice on me," MC retorted, shrugging her shoulders.

Accepting this as an answer, Rosahra and the Doctor disappeared into the wardrobe room leaving MC by herself in the console room.

In the wardrobe room, Rosahra browsed the lines of dresses to find something appropriate for the occasion. Making up her mind, she settled on a silver dress with a knee length pleated skirt and no sleeves. Overtop the skirt was a dark green netting with little rose-shaped designs of the same color embroidered on it. A pink rose was mounted on the brown belt around the waist.

Quickly she changed into the dress while the Doctor had his back turned to pick out a tuxedo. It was then that Rosahra realized that she had a problem. There was a zipper in the back. A zipper that she couldn't reach. Blushing, she hollered, "Doctor! A little help with the zipper?"

Hesitantly, the Doctor walked down the stairs in a dark brown tuxedo with a blue bowtie, which hung loose and untied around his neck. The Doctor had decided that something was still off with Rosahra, but she did have a conscience. That also meant that he was resolved to at least be nicer to her.

He gulped when he saw exactly how far down the zipper went, which was actually only slightly past the small of her back. His hands trembling only slightly, the Doctor zipped up the back of her dress. That being done, he asked, "A little help with the bowtie?"

Rosahra nodded, quickly tying it. The Doctor made a disgusted face, glancing down at the bowtie. Rosahra laughed.

Back in the console room, MC piloted the TARDIS to a deserted section of the moors. She reached down and lifted up the Master's body. Bowing her head, she carried the corpse out the doors before noticing that there was a pile of wood waiting for her to build a funeral pyre.

To say that MC felt any guilt over the Master's death would have been wholly inaccurate. She was sad that she had broken her promise not to kill anyone. That was awful. Especially if UNIT knew. . . She was not happy that she had killed the Master, but she wasn't sorry either.

MC easily built the pyre and set the Master's body on top. She reached into her pocket and extracted her flare gun from its depths. She aimed it at the base and tightened her grip on the handle and fired. The pyre was lit and the Master's body was slowly absorbed by the flames.

MC turned on her heel and strode into the TARDIS, not seeing the green, Gallifreyan ring fall from the Master's finger.

Once MC was back in the TARDIS, she brushed down her suit and pulled a necklace from her pocket and tied it around her neck.

MC quickly sent the TARDIS back into the time vortex and erased the coordinates from the TARDIS's memory. Accessible-to-the-Doctor-memory, anyhow.

MC grimaced and sat back in the jump seat, placing her feet on the console as she waited for the Doctor and Rosahra to return. She couldn't believe how long it was taking them to get dressed! How long did it even take people normally?!

"Took you lot longer that I'd've expected," MC commented, not bothering to move from where she lounged, rolling her eyes despite the fact no one could tell. "Don't tell me why. Just don't. I'd really rather not know!" She raised her hand in front of herself as she said that. Then, MC added, "Just take us to Donna, alright?"

The Doctor nodded his head. MC turned to Rosahra. Rosahra looked quite different without being all burnt. Her ginger hair was pinned up in a braided bun on the left side of her head. Light green eye shadow highlighted her green-grey eyes. She wore light pink lip-gloss and a little bit of blush as well. On her arms, she wore matching dark green gloves with small silver roses on them. MC noticed with a bit of surprise that Rosahra was wearing dark green and silver high-heeled boots.

The Doctor quickly traced the psychic message back to the source using some scanner-y thing that looked a bit more like a giant silver banana than anything else. The Doctor set the TARDIS to follow the psychic message's origins.

The Doctor turned away from the console towards Rosahra. Nervously, or perhaps shyly, he wrapped his arm around Rosahra's shoulders.

MC raised her eyebrows. When they had been dealing with the daleks, the Doctor had been dealing with the daleks, he wouldn't have been caught dead doing that. And now, something had changed. But what was it? What had changed?!

The TARDIS landed, and MC hopped her feet and sprinted to the door, poking her head out. She shouted, "Donna?"

The woman in question walked over to the TARDIS. "Hello, Ria."

"Donna," MC replied, inclining her head in the direction of her sister. "Good to see you again."

"And you," Donna replied, her voice almost freakishly polite. "So, what were you protecting me from?"

MC shook her head. "Shouldn't we find what was in the mirror?"

Donna shook her head. "No, it's gone now. And answer my question!"

MC shrugged before answering Donna's query. "There was this bloke. He was called the Master, but he influenced everyone to vote for him using a subliminal message. You'd know him better as Harold Saxon."

At this, Donna gasped. "But what did he want with you?!" Donna was frowning.

"He didn't want anyone to stop him. But, I know that wasn't the full reason. It's because of my real parents. But, anyway, he started tracking me, so I called in a favor with a Nestene Consciousness. The body that died was a Nestene duplicate. I didn't call you or my other friend because I quickly realized that he wasn't fooled and was still tracking me. He could have traced my call to you or me, so I didn't risk it. I ran across the world, but all the governments in the world were looking for me in my immortality suit so that they could capture me. Six months ago, I let myself get captured and I killed the Master. Rosahra and the Doctor were there."

Donna stared at MC, incredulity written all over her visage. "So, you've been travelling with them these past six months?"

Mc stared down at her feet. "Ah. No. I was erasing all images of my face, erasing the order to capture me, eliminating any death sentences, and destroying the Osterhagen Key."

Donna was furious. Actually, no. That was the understatement of the century. "You could have called and said you were alive."

"I should have," MC conceded, her voice the barest of whispers. "But I wasn't sure I was ever coming back."

"Dad died while you were away. It was three months ago now," Donna snapped at MC.

MC, despite a lack of actual guilt, was not happy that she hadn't been there with her adopted father in his final moments. And what was worse was that she could have been there. Before she could give Donna any more satisfaction at her apparent distress, MC stalked off to a corner and sank down the wall, her head resting on her hands.

Meanwhile, both Rosahra and the Doctor slipped out of the TARDIS and past MC and Donna. The Doctor and Rosahra looked at each other in silent conversation. Praying that she wasn't overstepping any newly erected boundaries, Rosahra hesitantly pressed her lips to the Doctor's. Before the Doctor could even register the kiss, Rosahra was already on her way.

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, a dazed expression on his face. Any thoughts he had about Rosahra being an average, cruel Time Lady were gone. In fact, the Doctor was quite sorry that he'd ever had those doubts; he should have been helping Rosahra try to remember her own name. He should have loved Rosahra. He should have been kid. Yet, Rosahra had forgiven his coldness. Guilt seeped into would do better from now on.

Meanwhile, Rosahra was creeping along a hallway,searching for the creature or any clues about what said creature might actually be. She decided that figuring out what the creature was was actually the higher priority.

She remembered Donna saying that it was dark, with glowing yellow eyes, shaggy fur, and horns. Donna had started seeing it in the mirror. Now it was gone. It had to still be around somewhere. Maybe it was invisible?

That narrowed it down to two different creatures originating from the same planet. Anicamptian was the planet. The two species were the sembayae and the cadioptians.

While this was going on, the Doctor, still slightly dazed, was walking through the halls searching for the creature. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver out and turned it on for a scan. He spun in a full circle, waiting for the highest pitch to lead him in the correct direction. When he heard it, he followed the noise. All the way until he found Donna.

As the Doctor was doing this, MC was having yet another difficult conversation. This time, it was Sylvia she was talking to. As anyone in Chiswick would know, Sylvia was high-strug. Well, if high-strung could actually cover Sylvia Noble. And MC knew that better than just about anyone, with the possible exceptions of Geoffrey Noble and Donna Noble.

Sylvia had noticed a strange woman sitting in the corner. She walked towards the figure, planning to evict the stranger from the church. That was when the stranger spoke in a familiar voice. "Hello, Mum. Miss me?"

"Ria Noble?!" Sylvia demanded, now furious with her adopted daughter. "Where the bloody hell have you been!" MC opened her mouth to reply, but she was cut off by Sylvia sticking her hand out in front of herself. "No, don't answer that; I don't want to hear it. You never could be a normal person could you?"

MC shook her head; then she responded, "Nope, I am an alien."

"You're right; you never cared about a single one of us!" Sylvia exclaimed. MC flinched. "You always did disappoint me, Ria."

"I'm sorry; I couldn't come back; I just —" MC began, trying to explain herself before she was cut off by Sylvia.

"Don't you bother coming back. And you don't deserve to have the name of Noble, either," Silvia added.

Biting back a despairing sob, MC stomped off to the TARDIS and let herself in. Still lachrymose, MC collapsed into the jumpseat, too upset to bother shutting the doors.

Back with the Doctor, the pitch of his sonic screwdriver dropped suddenly. The Doctor frowned and hit it once, and then again. The pitch didn't change. Slowly, he turned around. The pitch changed.

Rosahra hadn't strayed too terribly far from the TARDIS. She was about to see if there were any characteristics of the two creatures that she could use to determine which they were dealing with when she heard a voice inside her head. The voice sound like MC's and wailed, 'Help me!'

Rosahra sprinted the rest of the way to the TARDIS. When she arrived, MC was sprawled out on the floor,evidently unconscious.

**Yeah. Poor MC. And she won't be re-accepted. Yeah. As I said. Poor MC.**

**And if the stuff with Rosahra and the Doctor sounds a bit euphoric, it's not going to last. Sorry, folks. It will be better for them eventually. Only about twenty-two chapters until then. More or less. Don't kill me. Please.**

**So, I forgot to mention, I got a sonic screwdriver for my birthday! I think it has become the bane of my mum's existence. Alas! Alack! Alackaday! Ay! Aymi! Wirra! Maybe that was a tad excessive. Hmm. And I got a bamboo tablet. I'm working on a drawing of a character from another story (not published) on it. Maybe later I'll do some relating to this and post them on deviatart. I'll let you know when I do. **

**Oh, and for the Americans reading this, how was your Fourth of July? **

**My dad lit some of the more-than-nine-feet-tall ones. They were spectacular; my dad's girlfriend, her twin daughters, my dad, and I all thought so! After one of them, someone nearby called us "f**king scumbags!" We promptly relocated across a field into a different parking lot. **

**Oh, and I am taking prompts, if anyone is interested. Which, so far, you do not seem to be. I could be wrong though.**

**And please review! It makes my day!**

**~~Elf**


	13. The Runaway Bride Mark Two part 2

**So, short chapter. I liked the longer chapters, to be honest. Alas!**

A few minutes earlier, MC had been hugging herself, huddled up in the jumpseat. Beneath her helmet, a tear trickled down her cheek. Then another. And another. And then she was weeping. Actually weeping. Like she hadn't done since she was naught but a child. MC had forgotten that the doors to the TARDIS were left open.

The creature came into the TARDIS, unnoticed by anyone, least of all MC. It walked over to where MC, still invisible. When it fully laid eyes upon MC's immortality suit, recognition flashed in its luminous eyes. The creature understood exactly what the suit was and why it was given to the girl. Looking at her now, the creature could hardly believe that this woman, this bawling woman, was the infamous MC. The creature knew MC was in a weak mental state from her distress. Doing its equivelant of a malevolent sneer, the creature extended its abhorrant consciousness towards MC.

MC gasped as the figurative tidal wave hit her mind. In her lamentous state, she didn't register the assault until her mind was clouded in a thick, black fog through which she couldn't think. She couldn't move. She couldn't. . . . MC fell unconscious. MC had been knocked unconscious by the attack.

The creature attempted its grotesque equivalent of a smirk. It succeeded, and the effect was petrifying. This creature could scare off armies with just an expression; it didn't even need words.

However, what the creature didn't realize that just before she had fallen unconscious, MC had managed to mentally scream for help.

And Rosahra heard the plea. She ran back to the TARDIS, but what she found was the woman in the immortality suit prostrate on the floor, unconscious still from the attack.

Rosahra glanced around the console to see if she could find the creature. She couldn't, so she decided that the creature could turn invisible at will. And that narrowed down what the creature could be. The monster was one of the species known as a sembaya.

Now, sembayae were not known to be kind. In fact, they were known for being quite the opposite. They hunted solely for entertainment, much like cats and humans. Sembayae started there hunts by becoming the thing that moves in the mirror when one's not really looking at it properly. Then, the sembaya comes out of the mirror and begins to stalk its prey. Then it would enter the victim's mind and knock the victim unconscious so it could murder the physical form in ways almost unthinkable.

Back to the matter at hand, the sembaya decided to attack Rosahra as she stood in the way of it and its prey. Quite frankly, Rosahra was proud to stand between the sembaya and Donna.

The creature first tried to enter Rosahra's mind to knock her out. However, when it touched her mind, the sembaya flinched back. Rosahra had managed to move all the pain and hurt she had ever felt and created a barrier in her mind from it.

The sembaya cried out in pain before retreating. The pain was too much for it. Knowing that a mental assault was out of the question, the sembaya decided to use a physical attack.

Rosahra narrowed her eyes at the creature. She ducked down in a fighting stance. The creature rushed at her. Rosahra leapt to the side. Taking a deep breath, Rosahra arrived at a decision.

Rosahra leapt onto the sembaya. Her plan complete, she realized that she needed a new plan. She twisted the creature's fur. The sebaya howled and shook itself, trying to toss Rosahra from its back.

Rosahra clung on, if only just. She yelped slightly as she found herself only holding on by her hands. She kicked the side of the sembaya, causing it to roar loudly. She realized she couldn't hold on for much long as her hands were already beginning to slip down the sembaya, making her swing more towards the creature's back.

Thinking quickly, Rosahra let her hands slip down to the sembaya's arms. She pushed off the creature's back, causing the arms to twist behind the back. Rosahra landed on the ground, her hands still restraining the arms. Grinning smugly to herself, Rosahra pushed the sembaya out the door, so that she could attend to MC, who, astonishingly enough, was still unconscious.

After Rosahra slammed the door shut, she ran over to MC's side and shook her. The result of this was a grand total of naught. She tried again, landing herself with the same result. After she attempted to wake MC for the third time, she finally succeeded.

MC sat bolt upright and gasped heavily. "What the fuck happened?!" she exclaimed, not bothering to sensor her language. She nodded at Rosahra before furrowing her brow. "Donna's going to kill you for coming to her wedding looking like that!"

For the first time since putting the dress on, Rosahra realized she was wearing a dress, which was now not presentable. "Ah," Rosahra managed, and MC smirked.

"Come on, back to the wardrobe with you!" MC shooed Rosahra towards the wardrobe. MC followed Rosahra, if only to help her pick a new dress.

After scanning the wardrobe for a few seconds, MC spotted a dark green dress. This dress was tiered below the waist. Above the waist, the top was relatively loose and had two bell-shaped sleeves. The two sections, the top and the bottom, were divided by a canvas sash.

MC handed it over to Rosahra, who accepted the dress willingly after a moment's inspection. Rosahra quickly changed into the dress, which looked at least as lovely as the last one had, even though the design was simpler.

Rosahra thought for a second before asking MC a question. "Why were you not able to fend for yourself against the sembaya?"

"Oh, so that's what that was called," MC replied, essentially ignoring the actual query. Rosahra raised her eyebrows at the clear avoidance, which was almost Doctor-worthy.

"Answer the question," Rosahra pressed.

"What, you want to listen to my self pitying rant?" MC snapped, her voice hoarse from tears. MC turned away from Rosahra, not wanting her to see how truly wretched she felt, which was to say, horrendous.

"It's not bad to vent to others," Rosahra pointed out, walking towards MC. MC stared at the floor, hugging herself.

"And you talked to others?" MC snipped, knowing her remark would probably sting. "That was rude of me."

Rosahra noted that she did not actually include an apology. Rosahra knew that was as close as she was getting to one, though. "It doesn't matter; the Doctor likes to say he's rude and not ginger."

"Well," MC laughed, "I can't say that. I'm a ginger. But how is it with you and the Doctor? With the daleks, he was practically shunning you, and now he's trying to be nice."

"I don't know what goes on in his head," Rosahra said, shaking her head.

"Then tell me your side of the story; I'm a psychologist; I may be able to figure out his," MC replied.

"Seriously?" Rosahra exclaimed, trying to ignore MC's question the same way MC had hers moments earlier. "You're a psychologist?"

"Yeah, part of the deal. Anyhow, what happened to you between the Valiant and the daleks?" MC asked, trying her hardest to be gentle and compassionate. To be honest, though, it sounded just a tad unnatural coming from her. If there was one thing MC was not naturally, it was gentle.

"We went to Malcairisso, Chantho's planet," Rosahra began, "and in order to save all of time, I had to kill all the malmooth."

"Ouch," was MC's only reply. "Genocide to save time?"

"Yeah," Rosahra agreed. "Thing is though, the Doctor forced me to watch them all die."

MC's eyebrows shot up, not that anyone could tell. Outraged, fury welling within her, MC exclaimed, "He what?! I'm happy to murder him, if you'd like!"

"No, no, don't do that," Rosahra protested, her hands fluttering in front of her. MC shrugged.

MC quickly realized that they had gotten a bit off topic. "So, what happened next?"

Rosahra shrugged. "He treated me like I was dirt. That hurt a lot. To be honest, I'm not really sure what to do."

"Because you're still dealing with all the pain from being tortured," MC concluded. Rosahra just stared at her incredulously.

"How did you? Oh, nevermind; you're right. I'm nowhere near ready to deal with the torture. And I'm even less so for any new pain," Rosahra admitted, her eyes stormy and staring at the ground.

Something or someone stirred in the shadows. MC whirled around before Rosahra had even recognized that there was a third presence in the wardrobe. The presence stepped out from the shadows. Rosahra's mouth tumbled presence was the Doctor.

A mere fifteen minutes earlier, the Doctor had turned around and discovered that the sembaya had moved away from the wedding. This, naturally, had confused him slightly, but he decided to roll with it anyway.

He had followed the sonic screwdriver's emphatic beeping through the halls. He had frowned when he understood where he had ended up. He had ended up at the TARDIS, and the sembaya had been tossed out of the TARDIS. This had struck him as quite odd, but he had been more preoccupied with trying to figure out a way into the selfsame TARDIS.

He had thought quickly and used his sonic screwdriver to briefly stun the sembaya. He had worked his way into the TARDIS, dismayed at the slightly messy state of the control room.

From there he had run to the wardrobe, where he'd suspected the two women to be, and overheard their entire conversation. And he felt guilty. Incredibly guilty. But he was just the taddest bit angry.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor admitted before his demeanor shifted entirely. "Why couldn't you have shown me that you felt guilt?!" Rosahra flinched as if she had been hear the Doctor say such was just too much.

Sensing the imminent discourse, MC stood between the Doctor and Rosahra. Rosahra glared at the Doctor. "So it doesn't matter that it would all come if I even allowed it to come through a little bit?!" Rosahra snarled back.

"You made me think that you were just another uncaring Time Lady!" the Doctor exclaimed, running his fingers through his sticky-uppy hair.

MC cocked her head to the side before exhaling deeply. "You two are both bloody idiots!" Rosahra and the Doctor both stared at MC, offended. MC shrugged, shaking her head at them. "What? You are, though. Rosahra's in too much pain and if she lets down the barriers just a little she feels it all. The Doctor is worried that she doesn't feel anything, when the truth is the exact opposite. So would you just bloody apologize to Rosahra, Doctor. And Rosahra, would you let the Doctor help you with your pain?" MC backed out from between the two Time Lords.

Much to her surprise, the two immediately walked towards each other. "I'm sorry," the Doctor muttered a little sheepishly. Rosahra nodded and touched the Doctor's cheek.

"Help me," Rosahra whispered. It would have been impossible to say who moved first. Either way, though, Rosahra and the Doctor were kissing. Snogging, even. Neither the Doctor nor Rosahra, at that moment, could bring his or herself to care if snogging hurt them both mentally without being bonded. If it had been anyone else, MC would have complained about not getting to be a part of it. However, it was the Doctor and Rosahra, so MC was not complaining. In fact, she was backing out of the TARDIS slowly. Then she gave up on the slowly and backwards parts, opting instead to turn around and flee.

However, what she was met with made her realize that Rosahra and the Doctor- and she herself- had made a grave mistake. Directly outside the TARDIS, the sembaya was not. MC blanched.

MC burst into a run and hastened towards the wedding. But what was there was almost MC's worst nightmare. Not really; those would include more being helpless, the Master, Sylvia Noble, and various other baddies. Sprawled halfway down the aisle was Donna #1, seemingly unconscious. The other Donna, Donna #2, was already down the aisle and up at the altar with one Shawn Temple.

MC clapped a hand to her forehead. Rosahra and the Doctor suddenly came up behind her, looking just as dismayed as she felt. They all looked at each other.

**So, news. Oh, I got a flashlight (torch) that looks like Ten's sonic. And then, at another bookstore, I got the Tenth Doctor's sonic! **

**More news: I watched the Eighth Doctor movie. It was good. I liked it other than the whole 'half-human' bit and the 'the Doctor snogging Grace Holloway' bit. My friend Amby and I agree that Grace would not have made a good companion for the Doctor to travel with. She wasn't brave the way the others were, if you ask us. Both of us like Chang Lee, though. He'd've made a good companion.**

**And that's it for news.**

**Donate a review for charity? Lol. So, maybe not for charity. Just a good cause? Either way, please review.**

**~~Elf**


	14. The Runaway Bride Mark Two part 3

**Haha! I finished the chapter! I had to write 3/4 of it today, hence why I'm posting it at 19:55 my time. =D**

Minutes earlier, Donna Noble had finished waiting and was about to start up the aisle. The music began to play and both Donna's and Shaun's faces lit up with grins. Donna took a step. Then another. And another. And another until she was halfway up the aisle. Then it all went wrong. Donna saw the sembaya in all its shaggy glory. She let out a terrified scream, which, peculiarly enough, did not manage to reach the MC and the Time Lords' ears.

The sembaya approached. Donna shrieked and backed back down the aisle slowly. It was already too late; the sembaya had approached her and was standing next to her. In the blink of an eye (human eye, that is), the sembaya no longer looked like itself. Instead, it looked like a spitting image of Donna.

The Donna-sembaya began to circle the real Donna. Donna stopped screaming, deciding to try to escape the predatory sembaya's circling. In the space of a few moments, she broke free. However, the sembaya had accomplished its goal; no one could tell which Donna was the true Donna.

Donna #2 (the one that was circling) stopped and pushed past Donna #1, who promptly fell on the floor, and strode up the aisle.

And that was when MC burst into the hall. Everyone turned to stare at her, including both Donnas. She cleared her throat, not entirely sure how to react. Finally, she slapped her face with her hand and groaned.

A moment later, two other figures walked up behind her. Both were grinning, but their grins faltered the second they saw the problem, double Donna. Rosahra scowled, her grey eyes flickering between the two Donnas. The Doctor's lip was stuck out in thought as he too evaluated the scene. Almost as if on queue, all three looked at each other.

Both Donnas stared in shock at the trio. MC stared at them carefully for any signs to tell them apart. MC saw it. One Donna's eyes were narrower than the other's. MC smirked, glad that the helmet prevented anyone being able to tell.

The Donna at the altar was the first Donna to speak. "She- she's the fake! She just appeared out of nowhere!"

The Doctor' eyebrows rose, as did Rosahra's and MC's. MC was quickly calculating equations that could prove to her which Donna was real.

"I am not a fake!" Donna protested, picking herself off the ground

The Doctor's gaze flitted between the two Donnas for a minute longer before making up his mind. He walked up to the Donna at the altar and whispered, "We're going to help you, alright?"

Donna #2 grinned at the Doctor and nodded nervously. MC shook her head and sat down, stretching her long leg out in front of her, rubbing her forehead dramatically. She had already made up her mind about who was real and who was fake. What she was looking for was more proof. Irrefutable proof. Proof that she was right.

Rosahra stared between the two Donnas, at an utter loss of whom she should believe. Seeing as she had never met Donna, she didn't have much of a point of reference. She decided to wait this out until she could help and have a valid opinion

In that moment, MC arrived at a plan. Perhaps not the best plan, as any wrong move would result in a catastrophic level of destruction. MC gave both Rosahra and the Doctor a haughty glare. They needed to do what her plan required of them. She knew they would put up at least a little bit of fuss.

MC grinned and started her plan. "You know, I can't tell who's real and who's not. Why don't you prove who's real? Surely the real Dona could win anything!" MC's voice was calm and confident as if she was encouraging a four year old before a show. She stretched, apparently carefree. MC quirked a challenging eyebrow beneath her mask, almost as if she was daring them to obey her.

Donna at the altar strode over to the other Donna, who had just managed to pick herself off of the ground. The two Donnas stared at each other, one in disbelief, the other in shock.

"Well, go on, fight! Prove you're real!" MC encouraged. She clapped her hands together and watched, her eyes narrowed and a brow cocked. She strode over to them, and both stared at her in surprise. She shrugged. "What? I want a front row seat."

While the real Donna (the one who had been on the floor) was still staring at MC skeptically, the other Donna punched her in the face. Donna whirled around, livid. She slapped sembaya-Donna. Both Donnas clutched their cheeks. The Doctor winced in sympathy, and Rosahra cracked a bit of a smile. She had a hunch about MC's plan, but she understood how fallible the plan was.

As the two Donnas continued there psuedo-war, Rosahra beckoned both the Doctor and MC towards her. The Doctor walked over to her immediately, but MC glowered petulantly at her. MC wanted to make sure her plan worked. Rosahra' glare sharpened. Almost sheepishly, but no where near that in actuality, MC ambulated towards Rosahra and the Doctor, opting to let them in on her plan. Before she could open her mouth to explain, however, the Doctor exploded. Not literally, just let out his anger. "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

MC frowned. "I'm making it clear to the world which Donna is real. We'll pretend to honor the winner, which will obviously be the sembaya, and restrain the other Donna and say we'll put her in something impenetrable, and the sembaya will reveal itself. Normally, I'd'e done my usual speech and the baddie'd've gone away, but I'm indescribably bored, so I am using an unorthodox method. Kapeesh?"

"Being bored is not an excuse to be reckless, MC," the Doctor reprimanded the woman, scowling.

MC, per usual, shrugged and rolled her hazel eyes. "The last time I was not at least slightly bored was yesterday. Before that, however, it had been years. Trust me, I've literally gone insane from boredom before." MC gave a Cheshire cat style grin, glad that at least no one could see her face.

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm not going to start." Rosahra stifled a laugh.

MC nodded, "Yeah, that's probably better." The Doctor grinned, Rosahra copying that gesture. "Come on, we have work to which we must get!" Rosahra shot her an amused look, and MC's grin broadened.

The Doctor walked over towards the Donnas, closely followed by the two females. When he finally reached the Donnas, he held them apart with his hands and both Rosahra and MC 'restrained' the real Donna. The Doctor said, "Normally I am no fan of death, and today isn't any different. So, as it is clear that you have won and are the real Donna, I think that it is better if we are left to take care of this creature. We're putting her in an impenetrable cell."

The real Donna whimpered at the bad news. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, MC patted Donna on the shoulder, the very picture of discreet. Which is to say, not particularly discreet at all. Either way, it did not do too terribly much to comfort the poor human woman.

The sembaya was in a panic that could rival that of Donna herself. If nothing could penetrate where Donna was to be held, then the sembaya could not feed. And, quite frankly, it had to feed. It was humiliating, how long it had been since it had last fed. The sembaya was almost to the point of starvation, and for a sembaya to die of starvation was the greatest form of dishonor that existed, in its mine. In all honesty, the sembaya was really regretting trying to have a bit of fun on the hunt. That should have waited until it was nice and fed, not starved and embarrassed. Almost instinctively, the sembaya's true form slipped back, and the Donna impersonation was over. Kaput. Finito.

The people at the wedding burst in a cacophonous riot of screams, running,and trampling. Which, obviously, was not the best way to get out of the impending disaster. One Shaun Temple, however, was not so easily cowed. Instead of being the average Joe and running in terror, Shaun Temple was paralyzed in sheer terror. Admittedly, this method was probably more ineffective than the running and screaming thing.

Donna shook herself free from Rosahra and MC's grip, not that either offending party offered much in the way of resistance. Donna ran towards her husband-to-be, waving her arms and shouting at him to just bloody get out, but Shaun remained petrified.

The sembaya, knowing it's hunt was coming to a close, was desperate. The human woman was screaming and running towards something. The sembaya turned towards the woman's intended destination. A human male. the sembaya did its twisted mockery of a smug grin. It had a new source of protein. Lovely. The sembaya hurtled towards the man, it jaws wide open in anticipation of its appetizer. It swallowed Shaun Temple in one gulp.

Donna screamed in dismay and, perhaps, denial. The smebaya turned to face Donna, its prey. The sembaya bounded towards the woman.

Ten.

MC looked at the Doctor and Rosahra to see if they had a plan.

Nine.

The sembaya moved ever closer towards Donna

Eight.

Seven.

Six.

The cogs in MC's brain were whirling quickly; she needed a plan prompto. If she couldn't think of something, her sister was dead. She reached into her pocket.

Five.

The sembaya was almost at Donna.

Four.

MC pulled a tranquilizer gun out of the pocket.

Three.

She loaded the gun.

Two.

She aimed the gun right between the sembaya's beady eyes. She fired.

One.

The dart hit its mark and it seemed that the entire room sighed in relief. The sembaya collapsed on the ground where it stood. Both the Doctor and Rosahra grimaced.

"Come on, let's get this baddie into the TARDIS," MC groaned. She did not want to be the one to drag the sembaya to the TARDIS, regardless of whether or not she had been the one to knock it into a state of benightedness.

The Doctor, without anyone asking him to, began to drag the sembaya.

"You strong enough?" Rosahra asked, grinning.

The Doctor pouted, turning his head to look at her. "Oi!" was the sentiment he chose to express the displeasure he felt at being questioned at such trivial matters as his strength. Well, he didn't particularly find the matter trivial. He was rather disappointed that Rosahra did not think he was strong. The Doctor let go of the sembaya for a second to flex his muscles at her. Rosahra raised an eyebrow, but a small batch of giggles escaped her lips. The Doctor's pout twisted into a grin, and Rosahra laughed even harder.

A groan from the sembaya, however, was all the encouragement the Doctor needed to shove it into the TARDIS. MC, Rosahra, and the Doctor quickly piled themselves into the TARDIS as well. Donna, however, remained outside of the TARDIS, the reality of her situation finally settling on her. Her sweet, kind, caring Shaun Temple was dead. The Doctor was back. And her sister was, in fact, still alive.

Inside the TARDIS, the sembaya had finally woken up.

"Oh, the baddie's awake," MC mumbled, drawing out the syllables in a manner that could only be described as sarcastic.

Rosahra shot her a hearted (she had to heart, so that was her equivalent of half-hearted) glare. MC, surprise surprise, shrugged. "We could take you to your home planet," Rosahra offered, thinking her suggestion to be at least ten types of reasonable.

The sembaya grunted before carefully speaking. "No, I would rather die than to live in shame of failing in a hunt." Rosahra's face slipped into a pained expression, and she let her head rest on the Doctor's chest. The Doctor's lips quirked upwards in a slight smile.

MC decided to offer up another solution. "I could make you forget that you ever were hunting Donna. That way you'd be alive, not dead, and not shamed."

"Then live with my failures forgotten?" the sembaya grunted in displeasure. "No."

MC grimaced. "Then I will kill you. You know what, you were trying to eat my sister. You killed her fiance. And you're boring. Die if you will not let my sister live."

MC pulled another gun from her suit and shot the sembaya, a little grin appearing on her face. It wasn't a normal grin. It was the grin associated with her darker, more sadistic side. With obvious effort, she pushed the glee she felt aside and turned to the others. "Come on. TARDIS, would you mind disposing of the sembaya's body? The TARDIS seems to think Donna wants to come with us."

MC opened the door, not knowing exactly what to expect. What was waiting for her was a bit of a surprise. Donna was standing outside with tears running down her face holding all of the suitcase-esque things she owned. "Come in," she said, trying to get over her shock.

Donna, grinning despite her tears, walked in.

"Hat box?" the Doctor asked, staring at her baggage, but noticing the hat box in particular.

"Planet of hats, I'm ready!" Donna exclaimed, firmly wiping away her tears. MC took half of her stuff from her and helped her to where she expected Donna's room would be. Oddly enough, she was right.

Once MC had left, Donna let herself cry. She hadn't wanted to cry in front of the Doctor because she didn't want him to think her weak. After she had turned him down, she had instantly regretted her decision. She had done whatever she could to find him again.

Back in the console room, trouble was brewing and quickly at that. The Doctor and Rosahra were snogging. Normally, this would have caused no more trouble than any other couple snogging, even if the mere act caused both participants pain. Rosahra rubbed up against the Doctor just a little bit. He moaned slightly. On instinct, he whispered her name. Or, at least, he tried to. What he ended up saying was "Rose". Rosahra bit his lip one last time, half out of despair and hurt. When she had fully pulled away, she disguised the anguish that should have been clearly etch on her face. She sauntered over to the captain's chair and collapsed, sighing slightly in relief as MC walked into to the room.

She came to a decision. She could not live on the TARDIS if the man she loved resented her for having changed back into herself. The next place they landed that she liked well enough, she was not going to leave.

***hides behind my door* So, don't kill me? ****_Please! _****So, what did you think. My apologies to the guest reviewer who asked me to have Donna and Shaun adopt MC. I was really considering writing an alternate version of this chapter and posting it separately. I think it might be confusing if I have a piece connected to this fic that is AU for this AU. And, I just realized this, but MC is Donna's adopted sister, even if she was disowned by Sylvia Mott Noble. **

**Oh, so I was a counselor at a camp this week. Three of the other counselors were as nerdy as I am! They all like Star Trek, one liked Doctor Who, one liked Star Wars, and they all liked other random things, including astronomy. It was the first time someone's asked me 'What's your favorite planet?' and I've answered 'Gliese 581 d because it has the right conditions for us carbon-based life forms' that someone's understood what I'm talking about! Anyhow. We played a lot of cards, and we kept throwing them at each other. And I won all of the games of Connect Four. Why do people never make the logical move? I was told I look like a writer. So I may have been wearing a Steampunk-esque cloche hat with most of the brim tilted up and playing cards lodged in it.**

_********PLEASE READ****** I will not be updating next week because I am going on vacation and not bringing any electronics with me.**_

**So, please review?**

**Really.**

**You know you want to.**

**So you don't have to.**

**But still. **

**It'll make me really happy when I get back on!**

**~~Elf**


	15. Interlude: Decrescent Dead

**So, this is a little longer than I tend to make interludes. Then, I tend to publish the first draft, not write them in a notebook whilst on vacation and then type them up. Anywho, please enjoy.**

Once upon a time, there was a young blonde girl who lived in the beginning of the 22nd century. The girl's name was Stella. When she was only sixteen years of age, she was exploring in the woods by herself. As younglings are wont to do in the forest, Stella overturned rocks and logs as she went. Much to her astonishment, there was something other than just the obligatory bugs under a particular log. There was a book and a strange metal tube with a strange yellow tip. She stared at the objects, her eyes widened and her mouth slack in sheer disbelief. How did they get there? After staring at them for a moment longer, Stella's curiosity outweighed her caution, and she picked the two items up in her bare hand.

Gleeful about her new possessions, a giddy smile lining her face, Stella trotted back to her small hovering house with a metallic garden. Much to her surprise, Stella's mum did not ask about the book and the tube. No, her mum asked how her best friend, Ember Nox, was doing. Stella did her best to maintain a poker face while she determined why that was her mum's query. A second later, she smiled and nodded, assuring her mum that Ember was doing splendidly. She had apparently lied to her mum, saying that she was going to Emby's house. Before she was forced to lie any further, Stella quickly ducked through the doorway and dashed into her cozy bedroom.

After flipping through the various pages contained within the book, Stella Solluna discovered that the book was called 'The Secret Book of Saxon'. Not the best title for what was supposedly secret book, if you asked Stella. Stella thought it would be more secret if the title didn't announce that it was of Saxon or supposedly secret.

After further flipping, Stella discovered that the book wasn't referring to the Anglo-Saxon invasion, or just any old Saxon. No, it was referring to Harold Saxon, the 21st century Prime Minister after Harriet to the vids she had watched on that era, Saxon was an excellent man and the votes were almost unanimously for him. He was even the Prime Minister during the first contact with alien life. For reasons unknown, Saxon was senselessly assassinated by MC, who, allegedly, was never properly caught or tried for this crime. No further information was ever given on the woman, but it was clear from the vids that she had a dark history.

Ecstatic about being the first person to learn more about the poor Prime Minister, Stella's flipping became more frenzied. Finally, a title caught her attention, and she began to read. After a few moments, she realized that this section was written in a different hand. According to whomever had written this account, MC, the assassin, was the one to burn Saxon's corpse. Stella dropped the book when she read that, her mouth fell open, and her eyebrows flew up. 'Well,' she thought, grimacing, 'the historians would have loved to have known that. I don't want to know how many vids they could have made on it.' Not in the lest hesitant, she picked the book up from the metallic floor.

Stella continued reading, and quickly discovered that the woman called MC had not noticed that Saxon's ring had fallen, and that said ring was still there, buried. Stella remembered about that, and flipped to where she had seen the ring mentioned earlier, and there it was. The Recipe for the Potions of Life. A potion that would bring Saxon back. Stella gaped, looking oddly like a fish as she stared at the title in pure awe. She finally drew her gaze to the recipe itself. All it required was water boiling in a cauldron, something tha bore Saxon's imprint known as a laser screwdriver (Stella realized that was the weird tube that came with the book), the life force of two people, and the ring. Stella leafed back to where the book claimed the ring was. It was only a day trip away. Three hours, at the most. She got her com device and dialed her friend, Emby, and asked her to nick her dad's car so they could get the ring and perform the potion. Stella did not mention that the potion would be the death of them both.

When they reached the location, Stella furtively glanced around to ensure that no one was watching. They weren't and within minutes, they had dug up the ring. They began to create the potion, and had already boiled the water and inserted the screwdriver when a woman with curly, blonde, space hair appeared from nowhere. Both girls leapt backwards, Ember falling to the ground when they saw her. Stella barely held onto the ring. "Hello, sweeties," the woman greeted them, smiling cockily.

"Like, who the bloody hell are you?!" Stella snapped, her arms crossed across her chest defensively the ring on her finger. Both girls glared at the space-haired woman, daring her to make a move.

The woman snorted before replying, an eyebrow raised, "I'm the Professor." She continued to grin at them, tapping her fingers on her leg.

"Is that, like, supposed to be, like, impressive or something?" Emby giggled, rolling her chocolate brown eyes and shaking her ginger head. Stella nodded, indicating her agreement with Emby's statement.

The Professor smirked. "Go ahead and finish that, sweeties, and I'll show you just how impressive I really am by saving your lives," the Professor encouraged, nodding. It was clear from her voice that they should not cross her.

"Um, why the hell should we?" Stella demanded belligerently, earning her a quizzical stare from her friend as they full-well intended to go through with it. Emby elbowed Stella in the gut.

Stella shifted guiltily, and the Professor's words fully sank into Emby's mind. Stella tossed the ring into the cauldron, and suddenly, in a blue haze, both girls' life forces twirled into the cauldron. Stella could distantly hear herself saying, "We give ourself so that Saxon might live!" Both girls died, and the Professor's smile dimmed; she really had meant to save them.

The Master's torso appeared, closely followed by his other limbs and head. The Professor raked her eyes over the Master's naked form appreciatively, causing the Master to blush slightly. "Never dying. Never dying! NEVER DYING!" the Master chanted, his voice growing louder each time he said it; the words were an insidious tattoo in his mind, nigh as bad as the drums. And, if he thought them properly, they could be timed to the drums: One-nev Two-er Three-dy Four-ing.

Grimacing, her eyes bright, the Professor tossed something else into the cauldron. When the Master realized its identity, he wailed, "No! No!" It was a potion of death, almost, yet not quite, as the Potion of Life.

"Sorry, Koschei," the Professor laughed, grinning. "But, you need to be half-dead as it was to my knowledge you were. Don't fret, it's only temporary."

Despite the Professor's words, the Master was going to complain. "Why is it only temporary?!" He had an inkling of who this mysterious Professor was. Two inklings, to be exact. And, in his not in the least bit humble opinion, both were probable.

The Professor snorted, "You're going to die and then be saved. A good friend of mine will be responsible for both. And soon, the drums will be gone." The Professor raised her gaze to meet that of the Master. She winked.

The Master stared at the Professor in pure and utter shock. The Master had had these drums as long as he could remember. What would he be without them? Would he still be the Master, or would he take a new name? He didn't want the drums to be gone, and the Professor's words terrified him.

Suddenly, the Professor's potion took effect. The cauldron exploded, sending shrapnel in every direction. The Master was propelled up and away. When he landed, surprisingly enough he was on his feet. Something was severely wrong. His skin vanished, leaving his skeleton, complete with worms, innards hanging out, and blue electricity-esque stuff crackling across him. His skin reappeared. Then vanished anew. The Master realized his life force was slipping away. He realized that he was indescribably hungry. He wandered off in search of food. Food. Food. Food! Food! FOOD! FOOD!

Back in the explosion, the scalding water hit the Professor. She cried out as she was burned, her skin sizzling. She felt her hands and head growing hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter. She glanced surreptitiously down at her hands. A gold glow was emanating from them. She had only done this once, hundreds of years ago, but, somehow, she was expecting this. Gold exploded from her and she screamed again as heat, light, and pain tore her in every direction, stretching her body in new and agonizing ways. It subsided, and she warily glanced down at her body. She now had textured black hair and medium tan skin. If she had a mirror, she would have seen she had a small hooked nose, full brownish-pink lips, and green, almond shaped eyes. What she did notice, however, was that he clothes were a mite too short and a smidge too loose. And, she would have much rather have been wearing good ole sturdy jeans and a long sleeved indigo t-shirt in than the dress and tights she was wearing.

Not fully satisfied with her knowledge of her new being, the Professor knew she had to get out of there. Sighing, she pressed a few button on her vortex manipulator and vanished.

Somewhere out in the vortex, the TARDIS felt these events and hurtled towards England, Earth, 22nd century.

*******PLEASE READ: For all of you who recognize the Professor as River Song. You are right! Yes, in my story, she can regenerate. This is an AU, so I decided Let's Kill Hitler never existed. (cue Beethoven's Fifth) And, she has no romantic attachment to the Doctor. And, as I suppose you have guessed, the Professor's history is different from cannon. And trust me on this, it is really different. Really different. I love it when that happens!**** ********

*******ANOTHER PLEASE READ MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE LAST: I am going on vacation yet again. So, unfortunately, I will be unable to update next week. I will try to have the next story written if I can, though. You can probably guess that this is my AU version of the End of Time by now. So, Allons-y and Geronimo!**********

*******PLEASE READ THIS BECAUSE I REALLY WANT YOUR OPINION: Do you want the Professor to have just been flirting with the Master, or would you like there to be a Master/Professor pairing? Please review to let me know!********

**Oh, the full version of the new image is available on my DeviantArt (ElfDrake)**

**Oh, and while I was on vacation, I rewrote the beginning of a couple other of my fics! Voila! That is off my agendum (the singular form of agenda as 'agenda' is actually the plural form!)! So, When She Was Death; Rose Tyler, Savior of the World; and the Dream Lord's Wife are all updated with my newer versions and will probably be updated again when I get back from my next vacation. =) A week from now. XP. If my sanity survives the week, that is. I like my sanity. I need my sanity. I'm rather attached to. . . .my sanity.**

**A kind thanks to your seemingly infinite patience! **

**~~Elf**


	16. Interlude: A Month Passed

**Hello! I'm back and unpoofed! So, I think I may have said that this chapter would be the start of Gallifrey Has Returned. Well, that was my original intention, but then this became interlude length. Oh well, start the story next week then. =D**

*******************INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT: I have posted a digital drawing of Rosahra on my DeviantArt account (also under ElfDrake). Feel free to look at it if you wish.***********

Shortly after Donna arrived on the TARDIS, the tension had doubled. This was partially due to the fact that until then, MC had been in dire desire to leave. This was also partially due to the fact the Doctor had called Rosahra 'Rose', confirming one of Rosahra's dormant fears, though she was a little grateful that he hadn't called her 'Rosetta' as he had the last time.

Donna, as the new arrival, had thought the tension was because of her, and thus she had offered to leave. They had all been quick to persuade her otherwise.

Rosahra had become quite tense. This was turning into a real problem because it had gotten them into further trouble. On Miarnalla, the Doctor had been relying on her to cut the rope at exactly the right time. She had been a second early, and they were both quite fortunate that MC had parked a liberated hovercraft beneath them at that moment. they had then managed to save Donna, but Rosahra had then known she needed someone to talk to.

As she had wanted to discuss the Doctor, the Doctor was most certainly not an option. And, it wasn't like she could really trust him anymore either. And that had narrowed it down to either MC or Donna. While Donna acted less like a hormonal teen, Rosahra also didn't know Donna as well (not that she really knew MC that well either). In the end, she had chosen MC as her confidante.

This turned out to be a good choice, because MC would share stories and give advice, though no stories or advice revealed much about her own past. Rosahra felt almost like the thirty-nine-year-old woman was hiding something. Perhaps there was something sinister in her past?

The Doctor, despite his apparent untrustworthiness, was also proving to be a help to Rosahra. After their conversation in the wardrobe, he had decided to help her work through her pain. While they both knew that it would always haunt her, the Doctor wanted to help her in whatever little ways he could. And it was helping Rosahra more than she'd ever admit, even though she thought the Doctor resented her.

Rosahra and the Doctor were doing a fantastic job of grating on MC's nerves. This only increased when the Doctor, after Rosahra gave him a hurt expression and left the kitchen, wanted someone to talk to.

It was hurting him, the way Rosahra was always casting him wary glances although her eyes shone with love. He needed to have someone to talk to, someone to help him and comfort him. He needed advice. And, just like Rosahra, he had determined that he should use MC as his shoulder to lean on. Just as she was with Rosahra, MC would give advice and tell some stories, that usually ended with her talking her way out of trouble.

Needless to say, MC was becoming slightly bored of being told the same stories twice and was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with having both sides of the rift come for her help. And it took quite a lot to make the ex(sort of ex?)sociopath uncomfortable. Though, it was a bit of a relief to her that she couldn't feel guilt. Actually, she would have troubles living with herself is she could feel guilt.

The universe was certainly loathe to do MC any favors, namely making one of the two Gallifreyan un-stubborn enough to talk to the other.

While being the confidante had, at first, proved interesting for MC. Though, after a couple weeks, it was definitely boring. And no one liked MC when she was bored. Her mates in college as she worked for five of her doctorates in her teens had born the worst of her boredom. UNIT and the police were never surprised when a random alien or a random criminal turned themselves in or turned up on their desks respectively.

And sometimes even that wouldn't entertain MC. Which was why she was spending an extraordinary amount of time in the library as opposed to saving least with the library, she could learn and plug the information into her intersect (which was inside the shaded visor that covered her eyes) for use while saving worlds. Or cities. Or towns. Or villages. Or the random pet.

About three weeks into the month, MC decided that she needed someone to express her ire to. Which was unfortunate for Donna, as she was the one MC decided on (not that there was ever really another option). MC was not shy when it came to cursing when angry, and Donna was quite surprised that her ears had failed to bleed.

Towards the end of the month, the tension was high, and everyone knew it. They began to hang around in the time vortex more often than go on adventures (which irritated the two sisters to no end). They still went on adventures, mind. They went to Africa in the 1600s, they met Hitler before stuffing him in the closet, they saw the cavemen, they saw the Trojan War, they went to Gliese 581 d, they saw Wasp 12 B, they saw the time when Earth got a second natural moon, and loads of other things. And for some reason, they always ended up running for their lives.

This irritated Rosahra to no end. She couldn't very well stay anywhere where the natives hated her. At least, not with at least regenerating once. Not that she was a big fan of this one (too ginger and in love with the Doctor), but she was on her eleventh face, and could only regenerate twice more unless something happened to give her more regenerations. She wasn't sure she wanted the extended life though.

Anywho, she couldn't stay where the natives hated her. But even still, she, Donna, and MC all knew their time together was extremely perhaps, the Doctor even suspected such. And that was why 22nd century Earth was such a surprise.

**Okay, don't kill me. Things will get better, but not before they get a whole lot worse.**

*********IMPORTANT: So, Rosahra needs a renegade Time Lady name. She used to be the Stone, but I need a new one for her, because she is leaving that part of her life behind her. So, I need suggestions!********

*********MAYBE NOT QUITE AS IMPORTANT, BUT PLEASE READ: I would like to see if I can get sixty reviews by chapter 20, so would you mind reviewing? It takes a total of a few seconds. If you have time to read this, you probably have time to review, so please review!*******

**And yes, I am having loads of fun foreshadowing. It really is great. I have the next chapter transferred from my notebook to my laptop and am at least partway through the chapter after that. Can you tell I am trying to get ahead on this fic?**

******Okay, the next chapter for When She Was Death is started and will therefore be published soon!**

**As a matter of interest, how old do you think I am? I will post the answer next week, if I get any responses. =D**

**~~Elf**


	17. Gallifrey Has Returned part 1

**Hi! So, I suppose I should mention that this chapter does reference earlier chapters, particularly the 'episode' Victors of the War. But then, as this is 'Gallifrey Has Returned', my End of Time rewrite, that makes a bit of sense.**

**********INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT: If you didn't see the note last week, then her it is: I posted a digital drawing of Rosahra on my DeviantArt (ElfDrake) account. Please check that out if you want to. =D *********

When the TARDIS landed in the 22nd century, the Doctor was terribly confused. Actually, scratch that, the Doctor was dreadfully perplexed, which caused a frown to be knitted above his eyebrows and a pout to place itself on his lips. He pulled out his glasses and stuck them on his nose. The Doctor had not moved the TARDIS, and as far as he was aware, neither had MC or Rosahra.

Still incredulous, the Doctor dashed into the console room. MC was the next into the console room. She was panting slightly. Though, with her biology and level of fitness, that meant she had probably run a mile. Probably a mile that could have broken the world record.

Despite the mask, the Doctor was absolutely certain that MC was shooting him a glare that could quite possibly make some humans faint, if they could see through said mask, that was. It sometimes bothered the Doctor that MC's suit had a shaded visor through which he could see not her eyes and that her suit prevented him from seeing what she looked like.

The Doctor was drawn from his ponderings by MC's ireful voice. "The fucking hell?!" Her glare had almost nothing on her voice. "Some warning before we go on an adventure would be lovely!"

The Doctor opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water ere bringing a reply to his lips. "She just went; I arrived just before you did!"

Much to both MC and the Doctor's surprise, Rosahra had snuck in without either of their noticing. She pressed her lips together, her eyebrows raised. "Something must have drawn her here then. Actually, where is here?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Good question, that." He pulled a scanner over so he could read it. He pouted slightly as he read. "22nd century Earth."

Rosahra strolled over to stand between the doors and the Doctor. "England, to be precise. But, then, where else would we have landed?" While the quip was intended to be a lighthearted joke, MC narrowed her eyes.

"I'm sure Jack would have appreciated it if you had landed in Cardiff more often." MC returned to glaring at the Doctor, who shifted guiltily.

Rosahra coughed and motioned for the door with her head, a small smile gracing her lips. MC nodded. "Donna won't be happy we went on an adventure whilst she is sleeping." MC walked over to Rosahra and whispered in her ear quietly enough so the Doctor wouldn't hear, "Is this it?" When Rosahra nodded in response, MC added, "The best of luck to you."

Rosahra nodded solemnly as she returned the sentiment. The two women embraced. The Doctor gaped at them, once again confused, but he wisely did not exercise his vocal chords. Rosahra ambled out the door, and MC had to drag the Doctor out of the TARDIS by his wrist.

What greeted them was horrific. Truly, absolutely, undeniably horrific. There were many shards of some black metal. It was nearly impossible to tell what the shards were formerly a part of, but all of them suspected something like a cauldron. On the shards was a weird residue.

But that was not what had caught the Doctor and Rosahra's attention. No, what had caught their attention was the corpses. Rosahra pressed a fist into her mouth, tears welling in her eyes. No, she could not cry. There was still too much pain for her to deal with. The Doctor averted his eyes from the corpses, but that was still where his attention was. He placed a hand on the woman he loved's shoulder.

Unlike the others, Mc's eyes were drawn elsewhere. A book was lying on the ground. Furtively, she glanced around and picked it up. It was definitely a book, which came as a slight relief. Smiling slightly, she began to leaf through it. Her eyes widened in alarm at what she saw on one page. Her fingers trembling ever so slightly, she read the entire entry. By the time she had finished, her eyes were, at the very least, the size of a CD, or perhaps, the size of a palantir from Tolkien's works. "No," she managed in the barest of whispers. "That's not true." Her voice was louder. She blinked a couple of times. "That's impossible!" She raised her upper lip slightly, and her nostrils flared.

Both the Doctor and Rosahra swiveled to face her. The Doctor beat Rosahra to his signature line. "What?!"

"The Master is back!" MC exclaimed, her breaths shorter than usual. "His ring and screwdriver survived. And two idiots took it upon themselves to revive him." MC's voice was no more or less than a low and furious growl. She watched both the Doctor and Rosahra's eyes grow wide as saucers in alarm. MC didn't even bother to mention that she couldn't go to the 21st century as MC anymore. She sniffed, tilting her chin up. "Think we should find him?"

Rosahra nodded emphatically, and the Doctor followed suit. MC nodded. In a low voice she hoped the others wouldn't hear, she muttered. "Hope I'm sane this time." She pursed her lip but then twisted them upwards in a grotesque grimace.

While it would have been impossible for an ordinary human to have heard her, the Doctor and Rosahra were Time Lords, and that meant that they could hear her statement perfectly well. In surprisingly perfect unison, the Doctor and Rosahra replied, "What do you mean?!" The Doctor flushed slightly, pink on his cheeks and the tips of his ears. Rosahra, on the other hand, shifted uncomfortably, staring at the ground. She crossed her arms.

MC ignored the awkwardness as she absently rubbed the top of her helmet. "I wasn't fully sane when we met the first time. Or the second time, for that matter. The sanity is only recently regained. So yeah, wasn't fully sane when I killed the Master; it does go against my no killing policy. I broke quite a few of my rules when I was insane, mostly my moral ones. FYI." She raised a threatening eyebrow at them. Her tone indicated that was the end of the topic. Period. Finito.

The Doctor shared a look even as MC changed the topic with ease that only comes with expertise. "We should find the Master."

The Doctor and Rosahra nodded slightly. The Doctor made a mental note to pry more information at a later point in time. "Any idea where he is?"

"Can't sense him, oh mighty Time Lords?" MC's mood had rapidly decreased since she had gotten a hint of what her own fate would be. And the Master's return had not helped in the least. What was more was that MC's temper wasn't even as abominable as it could have places, she was known for her abhorrent temper. The Master had met her while she was in her insane temper; he didn't survive. Or so they had thought.

"Both the Doctor and I can sense him telepathically as we are both Time Lords," Rosahra explained, her brow crinkling. She started to braid the front of her hair absently.

MC thought for a second, worrying her upper lip with her teeth. "You mean that you can sense him, but it's not like he's entirely there, like he's half dead." Both Time Lords gawked at her, utterly surprised.

Slowly, Rosahra Doctor, however, wanted to know how MC had come to this realization. After a moment's contemplation, he opted to ask. "How'd you know that?"

MC stiffened slightly before relaxing, a grin spreading across her features. "Oh," she drawled, tilting her head. "You are not the only two telepaths in existence." The Doctor stared first at MC, then at Rosahra. The Doctor was stunned. How was the woman telepathic? And with the Dalek incident. . . .why had she said her head was hot? Could she be? No, he would not get his hopes up. He couldn't bear it if they were false.

For Rosahra, it merely added to the suspicions she'd had since she first heard of the woman, the suspicions given to her by the Master.

MC broke them free of their separate thoughts with a cough and an instruction. "Come on. We're going to find the Master." She grabbed the Doctor's left hand and Rosahra's right. She pulled them away from the scene and dead bodies, a fact they were all grateful for.

After a good full half hour of trekking across grassland, decreasing moods, and general chaos, they had arrived in a scrapyard, or what looked like one. They didn't know where or why they were where they were; they just felt like they should be there.

The yard itself looked as if it had been pulled straight from the 21st century. Apparently, times didn't change much. The yard was covered in gravel, and there were piles of pipe and other discarded metal lying around. What would draw them to an abandoned scrap yard? The Master had more style than that. Telepathic creatures drawn somewhere while telepathically searching. . . .oh. The Master did not have more style than hiding out at an abandoned scrap yard. The Doctor exhaled.

The Master was here. Bloody brilliant. What was he doing?! A knock rang out across the yard. The Master wanted to be found. He hit the metal cylinder with the metal stick again. The sound echoed across the yard. He hit it again, and MC came running, followed closely by the Doctor and Rosahra, who were pondering the Master's last hit rang out, vibrating the metal pipes. The three dashed up a pile of gravel.

Down in the flat space below was the Master, who grinned maniacally up at them. All of a sudden, the Master was replaced by a skeletal then, he was back. MC gaped at him, the Doctor stared in stunned surprise, and Rosahra pursed her Master stretched out his hand and beckoned them to come closer. Hesitantly, they obeyed. Sauntering down the hill, all trained their eyes on the Master.

The Master walked towards them, blue electric-y stuff scintillating across his skin on his hands. "Theta Sigma. Rosahra. Mir —" the Master began, but he was unable to finish, entirely due to the fact that, at that self-same moment, MC's fist collided with his jaw. He was very much not expecting the woman in question to punch Master stumbled backwards, rubbing his jaw with his hands. He cried out for one second before shutting his mouth. He pulled away one of his hands and saw some blood there.

MC smirked at him. She knew what paradoxes would ensue if the Master uttered her full name. She had to make sure he kept his mouth shut. Had she not been sane, she'd probably have done that by snogging him or something of the likes.

"Koschei," MC growled, biting her tongue against the plethora of insults that threatened to spill from her mouth. She glanced at him, for the first time registering the blue light. "Mad and dying. Funny how the tables are turned. Last we met, I was mad in both senses. And had UNIT known I faked my own death, they'd have killed me — in the literal sense of the word."

"How much longer?" the Master taunted, grinning. Apparently, her punch had not done much more than bruise him and break his skin in one or two locations. As he mocked her, his voice adopted a sing-song quality.

The Doctor and Rosahra shared a look, then they both stared at Mc and the Master. Why was the Master now fixating on MC? And why would UNIT kill MC? Finally, the Doctor stared into the Master's eyes. "You're burning up your own life force! You have to be stabilized! You can't keep this up!"

The Master smirked, tilting his head. The blue light drifted hastily into the Master's feet. He jumped, his legs given extra power by the crackling life force. MC gawked at him. The Doctor closed his eyes and ran a hand down his face. Rosahra sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"Wonder where he's off to in a hurry," MC commented when she had proper control over her rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. She glanced at both the others, but she received no immediate response. Her eyebrows fluttered upwards.

"Yeah, exactly; it'd be better if we did know!" The Doctor's words were cropped, and both women knew her was stressed and irritable. The Doctor stared pleadingly at Rosahra.

Rosahra shook her head slightly. "But we don't know, so we're going to have to find out." Rosahra was surprised at how calm her voice sounded. She would've thought her voice would've been more nervous and contentious. After all, for a while after the Doctor had 'betrayed' her the first time, Rosahra and the Master had 'loved' each other. Well, until the Master tried to kill her; after that, the Master had fallen back down to her bad side, leaving Romana her only friend.

MC exhaled crabbily. After a moment's thought, she clapped her hands together. "Well, best we get busy then!" She clenched her teeth, trying to find an outlet for her anxiety. She glowered at both the Doctor and Rosahra when they failed to obey or respond. That was when she realized they were staring at something. Something behind her back.

MC whirled around, her mouth open slightly. Standing behind MC was a short, young blonde who looked a wee bit like the Doctor's fifth body. The unknown woman stared at them, fingering her pocket. She was grinning . "Hello, D — ," she began, but then she hesitated. "Hello, Doctor."

The Doctor stared at her, his mouth open and his eyebrows raised in shock. "What?!"

**Kudos to anyone who caught the reference to Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. The reference was "No! That's not true! That's impossible!" ;D**

**And to answer the question to last week's question of my age, I am 20-5*4+7*4/14+12 years old. You can do the math if you so desire.**

**********IMPORTANT: I am still open to suggestions as to what Rosahra's renegade name should turn out to be. I have opened a poll with all suggestions on it on my profile. Please vote!***************

**And did anyone else catch the inconsistency between 'The Doctor's Wife' and 'The Name of the Doctor'? In the earlier episode, the TARDIS said that she had thirty control rooms archived, and the Doctor had only had twelve. She had more than one from the future! And the TARDIS in the finale was the same as the the one after the first 11 TARDIS! And the TARDIS was dying! END OF RANT**

**Okay. So yeah. I have also come up with something that proves the season 6 finale impossible.**

**Need to stop ranting about Moffat's work.**

**Okay. (Already said that, didn't I?) **

**Well, I'm working on rewriting some of my older stories. By the time this is posted, I will probably have posted the new version of 'The Way Time Repeats'. It will be a one-shot. A one-shot longer than the original version. **

**I am about 3/4 of the way through the next chapter, and I have been working on writing a Star Wars fanfic and the next chapter for When She Was Death.**

**Before this gets to be to gigantic, this is Elf signing off!**

**~~Elf**


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